System and method for controlling a wind turbine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10047722-B2
Application number	US-201615221663-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 28, 2016
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to a method for controlling a wind turbine having a rotor with a plurality of rotor blades mounted thereto based on a spatial wind speed distribution. The method includes monitoring, via at least one sensor, one or more operating conditions of the wind turbine. The method also includes determining a rotor azimuth angle of the wind turbine. In addition, the method includes determining, via a physics-based model, at least one individual wind speed for one or more of the rotor blades of the wind turbine based on the one or more operating conditions and the rotor azimuth angle. The method also includes determining a spatial wind speed distribution of the wind turbine based on the at least one individual wind speed. Thus, the method further includes controlling the wind turbine based on the spatial wind speed distribution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a wind turbine having a rotor with a plurality of rotor blades mounted thereto, the method comprising:
determining, via a physics-based model programmed in a controller, a plurality of individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on one or more operating conditions and a rotor azimuth angle of the rotor;
mapping via the controller, the plurality of individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine on a rotor plane to create a spatial wind speed distribution; and,
controlling, via the controller, the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the spatial wind speed distribution.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining at least one of a rotor imbalance moment, a power torque, or a shaft torque of the wind turbine and determining, via the physics-based model, the individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on at least one of the rotor imbalance moment, the power torque, or the shaft torque of the wind turbine.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one rotor imbalance moment comprises at least one of a nodding rotor imbalance moment or a tilting rotor imbalance moment.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operating conditions comprise at least one of a power output, a pitch angle, or a generator speed.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining at least one of a blade edge-wise moment or a blade flap-wise moment for each of the rotor blades of the wind turbine,
determining at least one of aerodynamic coefficients or partial derivatives of at least one of the blade edge-wise moment or the blade flap-wise moment, and
determining the individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the aerodynamic coefficients or partial derivatives of at least one of the blade edge-wise moment or the blade flap-wise moment.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physics-based model further comprises an extended Kalman filter.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine further comprises utilizing a plurality of sensors installed on at least one of a rotating frame of the wind turbine or a fixed frame of the wind turbine.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising estimating one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine based on the plurality of individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine and controlling the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine comprise at least one of a vertical wind shear, a horizontal wind shear, an exponential shear profile, a yaw direction, a tower deflection, temporal turbulence, or a partial wake detection.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising estimating the plurality of individual wind speeds for each of the rotor blades of the wind turbine based on a plurality of distributed strain gauge measurements.

11. A system for controlling a wind turbine having a rotor with a plurality of rotor blades mounted thereto, the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to measure one or more operating conditions of the wind turbine; and,
a controller communicatively coupled with the one or more sensors, the controller configured to perform one or more operations, the one or more operations comprising:
determining, via a physics-based model programmed in the controller, at least one individual wind speed for one or more of the rotor blades of the wind turbine based on the one or more operating conditions and at least one of a rotor imbalance moment or a rotor azimuth angle,
mapping the plurality of individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine on a rotor plane to create a spatial wind speed distribution, and
controlling the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the spatial wind speed distribution.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more operating conditions comprise at least one of a power output, a pitch angle, or a generator speed.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one rotor imbalance moment comprises at least one of a nodding rotor imbalance moment or a tilting rotor imbalance moment.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more operations further comprise:
determining at least one of a blade edge-wise moment or a blade flap-wise moment for each of the rotor blades of the wind turbine,
determining at least one of aerodynamic coefficients or partial derivatives of at least one of the blade edge-wise moment or the blade flap-wise moment, and
determining the individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the aerodynamic coefficients or partial derivatives of at least one of the blade edge-wise moment or the blade flap-wise moment.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the physics-based model further comprises an extended Kalman filter.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining the individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine further comprises utilizing a plurality of sensors installed on at least one of a rotating frame of the wind turbine or a fixed frame of the wind turbine.

17. The system of claim claim 11 , wherein the one or more operations further comprise:
estimating one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine based on the plurality of individual wind speeds for the plurality of rotor blades of the wind turbine, and
controlling the wind turbine based, at least in part, on the one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine, wherein the one or more loading conditions of the wind turbine comprise at least one of a vertical wind shear, a horizontal wind shear, an exponential shear profile, a yaw direction, a tower deflection, temporal turbulence, or a partial wake detection.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Vaddi Prashanth Kumar Reddy
• Vadlamudi Venkata Krishna
• Agarwal Pranav
• Deshpande Ameet Shridhar

Classifications

• F05B2270/329

  Azimuth or yaw angle · CPC title

• F05B2270/20

  to optimise the performance of a machine · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• F05B2270/328

  Blade pitch angle · CPC title

• F05B2220/30

  in turbines · CPC title