Control of a wind turbine using real-time gain calculation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10907612-B2
Application number	US-201716088419-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2017
Priority date	Mar 30, 2016
Publication date	Feb 2, 2021
Grant date	Feb 2, 2021

Abstract

A wind turbine control system comprising at least one control module configured to output a control signal for a control mechanism of a wind turbine, and a gain calculator for calculating a gain parameter associated with the control module, wherein the gain parameter is calculated based on a computerized real-time blade model using a determined wind turbine operating point as an input. The blade model may be a blade element momentum model. In another aspect, the invention may be expressed as a method of controlling a control mechanism of a wind turbine.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wind turbine control system comprising:
at least one control module configured to output a control signal for a control mechanism of a wind turbine, and
a gain calculator for calculating a gain parameter associated with the control module,
wherein the gain calculator receives an input based on a computerized real-time blade model that uses a determined wind turbine operating point as an input, in order to calculate the gain parameter, wherein the computerized real-time blade model is configured to determine a load on a blade in response to the determined wind turbine operating point in order to provide the input to the gain calculator.

2. The wind turbine control system of claim 1 , wherein the gain parameter is part of a feedback control module.

3. The wind turbine control system of claim 2 , wherein the gain parameter is a control term of a control law implemented in the feedback control module.

4. The wind turbine control system of claim 2 , wherein a plurality of gain parameters are determined, and wherein one or more of the plurality of gain parameters are associated with the control module.

5. The wind turbine control system of claim 4 , wherein the at least one control module comprises a plurality of control modules, wherein each control module provides a component of the control signal.

6. The wind turbine control system of claim 1 , the gain parameter is based on a respective aerodynamic sensitivity value calculated by the computerized real-time blade model, wherein the aerodynamic sensitivity value is indicative of the sensitivity of a force response to a change in a control variable.

7. The wind turbine control system of claim 6 , wherein the aerodynamic sensitivity value is selected from a group comprising:
a pitch to thrust sensitivity which provides an indication of the sensitivity of a thrust force along a rotor axis generated by blades in dependence on a change in a blade pitch angle;
a pitch to torque sensitivity which provides an indication of the sensitivity of a rotor torque in dependence on the change in the blade pitch angle;
a pitch to flap load sensitivity which provides an indication of the sensitivity of a blade flap loading in response to the change in the blade pitch angle; and
a pitch to chord-wise bending moment sensitivity which provides an indication of the sensitivity of a chord-wise bending moment in response to the change in the blade pitch angle.

8. The wind turbine control system of claim 1 , wherein the computerized real-time blade model is a blade element momentum model.

9. The wind turbine control system of claim 1 , wherein the computerized real-time blade model receives an estimated wind speed value as an input.

10. The wind turbine control system of claim 9 , wherein the estimated wind speed value is calculated in dependence on a difference between an actual generated power value and an estimated generated power value.

11. The wind turbine control system of claim 10 , wherein the estimated generated power value is obtained from the computerized real-time blade model.

12. The wind turbine control system of claim 9 , wherein the estimated wind speed value is the wind speed of the planar swept area of rotating blades.

13. The wind turbine control system of claim 1 , wherein the control mechanism is a pitch control mechanism.

14. A method of controlling a control mechanism of a wind turbine, the method comprising:
determining at least one gain parameter, wherein the gain parameter is based on an output from a computerized real-time blade model using at least a measured wind turbine operating point as an input, wherein the computerized real-time blade model is configured to determine a load on a blade in response to the measured wind turbine operating point in order to provide an input to a gain calculator; and
determining a control signal for the control mechanism based on the determined at least one gain parameter.

15. A wind turbine, comprising:
a tower;
a nacelle disposed on the tower;
a rotor extending from the nacelle, and having a plurality of blades disposed thereon; and
a control system, comprising:
at least one control module configured to output a control signal for a control mechanism of the wind turbine, and
a gain calculator for calculating a gain parameter associated with the control module, wherein the gain calculator receives an input based on a computerized real-time blade model that uses a determined wind turbine operating point as an input, in order to calculate the gain parameter, wherein the computerized real-time blade model is configured to determine a load on the blade in response to the determined wind turbine operating point in order to provide the input to the gain calculator.

16. The wind turbine of claim 15 , wherein the gain parameter is a control term of a control law implemented in a feedback control module.

17. The wind turbine of claim 15 , wherein the gain calculator calculates a plurality of gain parameters, and wherein one or more of the plurality of gain parameters are associated with the control module.

18. The wind turbine of claim 17 , wherein the at least one control module comprises a plurality of control modules, wherein each control module provides a component of the control signal.

Assignees

• Vestas Wind Sys As

Inventors

• Grunnet Jacob Deleuran
• Krüger Thomas
• Zaib Ali
• Thomsen Jesper Sandberg

Classifications

• F03D7/045 Primary

  with model-based controls · CPC title

• F05B2270/32

  Wind speeds · CPC title

• F05B2260/84

  Modelling or simulation · CPC title

• F05B2260/821

  Parameter estimation or prediction · CPC title

• F03D7/0224

  Adjusting blade pitch · CPC title