Optimal multivariable individual pitch control for load reduction of large wind turbines

Conference paper (2016)

Authors

M. Vali University of Oldenburg
J.W. van Wingerden Team Raf Van de Plas - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
M Kuhn University of Oldenburg
Research Group
Team Raf Van de Plas (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2016

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Delft Center for Systems and Control

Research Group

Team Raf Van de Plas

Abstract

This paper studies the active rotor load controller design for a large wind turbine via individual pitch control (IPC). A multivariable IPC is designed to reject the periodic load disturbances, in an optimal manner, by penalizing the control effort according to the pitch actuator constraints. Frequency response analysis of the well-known multi-blade coordinate (MBC) transformation describes how the rotational speed variations influence the flexible modes of the blades. Therefore, a multivariable plant is constructed in the frequency-domain, compatible with applying the disturbance rejection control approaches. Then, a mixed sensitivity H∞ optimization problem is formulated based on the obtained MIMO model. The performance of the synthesized controller is analyzed and compared with the PI-based IPC. Finally, the dynamic load mitigation of the developed controller is studied through the fatigue load analysis with a high-fidelity aeroelastic simulator. Results show a significant amount of load alleviation in return for an even lower level of the pitch activity, with respect to the PI-based IPC.