Showing papers on "Turbine published in 2015"

A Survey on Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring and Fault Diagnosis—Part II: Signals and Signal Processing Methods

Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the state-of-the-art condition monitoring and fault diagnostic technologies for wind turbines. The Part II of this survey focuses on the signals and signal processing methods used for wind turbine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis.

Control of PMSG-Based Wind Turbines for System Inertial Response and Power Oscillation Damping

Abstract: This paper investigates an improved active power control method for variable speed wind turbine to enhance the inertial response and damping capability during transient events. The optimized power point tracking (OPPT) controller, which shifts the turbine operating point from the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) curve to the virtual inertia control (VIC) curves according to the frequency deviation, is proposed to release the “hidden” kinetic energy and provide dynamic frequency support to the grid. The effects of the VIC on power oscillation damping capability are theoretically evaluated. Compared to the conventional supplementary derivative regulator-based inertia control, the proposed control scheme can not only provide fast inertial response, but also increase the system damping capability during transient events. Thus, inertial response and power oscillation damping function can be obtained in a single controller by the proposed OPPT control. A prototype three-machine system containing two synchronous generators and a PMSG-based wind turbine with 31% of wind penetration is tested to validate the proposed control strategy on providing rapid inertial response and enhanced system damping.

Rotary connection mechanism carrying cable in the wind turbines

Abstract: The invention relates to rotary connection mechanism (10) to which the transmission cables (13) drawing the energy generated in the wind turbine are connected; wherein it comprises rotary mechanism (20) connected with the cables (13), electricity transmission system (30) which is connected to the rotary mechanism and transmits the electricity it draws from the rotary mechanism (20), and assembly body (11) providing rotary mechanism (20) to be fixed to the turbine.

Simulation comparison of wake mitigation control strategies for a two-turbine case

Abstract: Wind turbines arranged in a wind plant impact each other through their wakes. Wind plant control is an active research field that attempts to improve wind plant performance by coordinating control of individual turbines to take into account these turbine–wake interactions. In this paper, high-fidelity simulations of a two-turbine fully waked scenario are used to investigate several wake mitigation strategies, including modification of yaw and tilt angles of an upstream turbine to induce wake skew, as well as repositioning of the downstream turbine. The simulation results are compared through change relative to a baseline operation in terms of overall power capture and loading on the upstream and downstream turbine. Results demonstrated improved power production for all methods. Analysis of control options, including individual pitch control, shows potential to minimize the increase of, or even reduce, turbine loads.Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The structure healthy condition monitoring and fault diagnosis methods in wind turbines: A review

Abstract: Wind turbines have been developed fast in the recent years and at the same time have brought some problems. It is important to maintain the healthy condition of the running turbine because the consequences after faults are miserable for both the company and owner. There is a constant need to reduce the costs of operating and maintaining the turbines. Therefore, it is very important to detect the faults/failures early so as to minimize downtime and maximize productivity. This paper reviewed the structure of wind turbines and analyzed the different components of wind turbines in order to detect the faults that may happen. Meanwhile, this paper mainly reviewed fault diagnosis methods of wind turbines in the last three years. The main purpose of this paper is to supply some information on structure healthy condition monitoring (SHCM) and fault diagnosis in wind turbines for related researchers.

Large eddy simulations of the flow past wind turbines: actuator line and disk modeling

Abstract: Large eddy simulations of the flow through wind turbines have been carried out using actuator disk and actuator line models for the turbine rotor aerodynamics. In this study, we compare the performance of these two models in producing wind turbine wakes. We also examine parameters that strongly affect the performance of these models, namely, grid resolution and the way in which the actuator force is projected onto the flow field. The proper choice of these two parameters has not been adequately addressed in previous works. We see that as the grid is coarsened, the predicted power decreases. As the width of the body force projection function is increased, the predicted power increases. The actuator disk and actuator line models produce similar wake profiles and predict power within 1% of one another when subject to the same uniform inflow. The actuator line model is able to generate flow structures near the blades such as root and tip vortices which the actuator disk model does not, but in the far wake, the predicted mean wakes are very similar. In order to perform validation against experimental data, the actuator line model output was compared with data from the wind tunnel experiment conducted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Agreement between measured and predicted power, wake profiles, and turbulent kinetic energy has been observed for most tip speed ratios; larger discrepancies in power and thrust coefficient, though, have been found for tip speed ratios of 9 and 12. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Advanced Pitch Angle Control Based on Fuzzy Logic for Variable-Speed Wind Turbine Systems

Abstract: In this paper, an advanced pitch angle control strategy based on the fuzzy logic is proposed for the variable-speed wind turbine systems, in which the generator output power and speed are used as control input variables for the fuzzy logic controller (FLC). The pitch angle reference is produced by the FLC, which can compensate for the nonlinear characteristic of the pitch angle to the wind speed. With the control variables of the generator output power and speed, the wind turbine is smoothly controlled to maintain the aerodynamic power and its speed at the rated values without any fluctuation in the output power and speed in the high-wind-speed regions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation results for a 2-MW permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) wind turbine system, and experimental results for a reduced-scale PMSG wind turbine simulator.

Optimal control of energy extraction in wind-farm boundary layers

Abstract: In very large wind farms the vertical interaction with the atmospheric boundary layer plays an important role, i.e. the total energy extraction is governed by the vertical transport of kinetic energy from higher regions in the boundary layer towards the turbine level. In the current study, we investigate optimal control of wind-farm boundary layers, considering the individual wind turbines as flow actuators, whose energy extraction can be dynamically regulated in time so as to optimally influence the flow field and the vertical energy transport. To this end, we use Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of a fullydeveloped pressure-driven wind-farm boundary layer in a receding-horizon optimal control framework. For the optimization of the wind-turbine controls, a conjugate-gradient optimization method is used in combination with adjoint LESs for the determination of the gradients of the cost functional. In a first control study, wind-farm energy extraction is optimized in an aligned wind farm. Results are accumulated over one hour of operation. We find that the energy extraction is increased by 16% compared to the uncontrolled reference. This is directly related to an increase of the vertical fluxes of energy towards the wind turbines, and vertical shear stresses increase considerably. A further analysis, decomposing total stresses in dispersive and Reynolds stresses, shows that the dispersive stresses increase drastically, and that the Reynolds stresses decrease on average, but increase in the wake region, leading to better wake recovery. We further observe that also turbulent dissipation levels in the boundary layer increase, and overall the outer layer of the boundary layer enters into a transient decelerating regime, while the inner layer and the turbine region attain a new statistically steady equilibrium within approximately one wind-farm through-flow time. Two additional optimal-control cases study penalization of turbulent dissipation. For the current wind-farm geometry, it is found that the ratio between wind-farm energy extraction and turbulent boundary-layer dissipation remains roughly around 70%, but can be slightly increased with a few percent by penalizing the dissipation in the optimization objective. For a pressure-driven boundary layer in equilibrium, we estimate that such a shift can lead to an increase in wind-farm energy extraction of 6%.

Coordinated Control Strategy of Wind Turbine Generator and Energy Storage Equipment for Frequency Support

Abstract: With the increasing penetration of wind power in power systems, it is desirable for wind turbines to have similar characteristics as conventional synchronous generators Conventional generators provide frequency support to the grid through the methods of inertial response and primary and secondary frequency regulation, whereas variable-speed wind turbine generators (WTGs) do not have those desired abilities because they are integrated into the power grid via power electronic converters Although many different control strategies have already been published to enable WTGs to temporarily support the transient frequency, the published strategies may bring various negative effects to the system This paper proposes a new control strategy to compensate for inertia of the wind farm It can improve WTGs' temporary frequency support based on the coordinated control of the WTGs and the energy storage (ES) system The simulation results show that this strategy could provide better performance of temporary frequency support and overcome problems such as system frequency oscillation and a secondary frequency drop The proposed control strategy can be realized in all wind speed conditions with a small-scale ES system

Multiple Open-Circuit Faults Diagnosis in Back-to-Back Converters of PMSG Drives for Wind Turbine Systems

Abstract: In order to increase the reliability and availability of wind turbines, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis are considered crucial means to achieve these goals. In this context, direct drives wind turbines based on permanent-magnet synchronous generators (PMSGs) with full-scale power converters are an emerging and promising technology. However, several statistical studies point out that power converters are a significant contributor to the overall failure rate of modern wind turbines. Accordingly, this paper presents a new algorithm for multiple open-circuit faults diagnosis in full-scale back-to-back converters, applied in PMSG drives used for wind turbine systems. The proposed method is based on a Luenberger observer and on an adaptive threshold, which can guarantee a reliable diagnosis independently of the drive operating conditions. Several simulation and experimental results using a PMSG drive with a full-scale converter are presented, showing the diagnostic algorithm effectiveness and robustness against false alarms for both generator- and grid-side converters.

A review of damage detection methods for wind turbine blades

Abstract: Wind energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources and many countries are predicted to increase wind energy portion of their whole national energy supply to about twenty percent in the next decade. One potential obstacle in the use of wind turbines to harvest wind energy is the maintenance of the wind turbine blades. The blades are a crucial and costly part of a wind turbine and over their service life can suffer from factors such as material degradation and fatigue, which can limit their effectiveness and safety. Thus, the ability to detect damage in wind turbine blades is of great significance for planning maintenance and continued operation of the wind turbine. This paper presents a review of recent research and development in the field of damage detection for wind turbine blades. Specifically, this paper reviews frequently employed sensors including fiber optic and piezoelectric sensors, and four promising damage detection methods, namely, transmittance function, wave propagation, impedance and vibration based methods. As a note towards the future development trend for wind turbine sensing systems, the necessity for wireless sensing and energy harvesting is briefly presented. Finally, existing problems and promising research efforts for online damage detection of turbine blades are discussed.

An SVM-Based Solution for Fault Detection in Wind Turbines

Abstract: Research into fault diagnosis in machines with a wide range of variable loads and speeds, such as wind turbines, is of great industrial interest. Analysis of the power signals emitted by wind turbines for the diagnosis of mechanical faults in their mechanical transmission chain is insufficient. A successful diagnosis requires the inclusion of accelerometers to evaluate vibrations. This work presents a multi-sensory system for fault diagnosis in wind turbines, combined with a data-mining solution for the classification of the operational state of the turbine. The selected sensors are accelerometers, in which vibration signals are processed using angular resampling techniques and electrical, torque and speed measurements. Support vector machines (SVMs) are selected for the classification task, including two traditional and two promising new kernels. This multi-sensory system has been validated on a test-bed that simulates the real conditions of wind turbines with two fault typologies: misalignment and imbalance. Comparison of SVM performance with the results of artificial neural networks (ANNs) shows that linear kernel SVM outperforms other kernels and ANNs in terms of accuracy, training and tuning times. The suitability and superior performance of linear SVM is also experimentally analyzed, to conclude that this data acquisition technique generates linearly separable datasets.

Simulation of wind turbine wakes using the actuator line technique

Abstract: The actuator line technique was introduced as a numerical tool to be employed in combination with large eddy simulations to enable the study of wakes and wake interaction in wind farms. The technique is today largely used for studying basic features of wakes as well as for making performance predictions of wind farms. In this paper, we give a short introduction to the wake problem and the actuator line methodology and present a study in which the technique is employed to determine the near-wake properties of wind turbines. The presented results include a comparison of experimental results of the wake characteristics of the flow around a three-bladed model wind turbine, the development of a simple analytical formula for determining the near-wake length behind a wind turbine and a detailed investigation of wake structures based on proper orthogonal decomposition analysis of numerically generated snapshots of the wake.

Optimal operation of distributed generations in micro-grids under uncertainties in load and renewable power generation using heuristic algorithm

Abstract: Microgrid (MG) could allow renewable and clean resources to penetrate into a controllable utility and achieve maximum utilisation of existing energy and demand-side management. This study proposes a new paradigm for distribution system operation considering MG conception. This study is focused on probabilistic analysis of optimal power dispatch considering economic aspects in MGs environment with technical constraints. In this study the economic operation of small scale energy zones is formulated and solved as an optimisation problem. A typical MG consists wind turbine (WT), photo voltaic (PV), micro turbine, fuel cell, combined heat and power and electric loads. Fluctuation behaviour of loads and generated power by WTs and PVs are caused complexity in proposed problem. Cost function includes generated powers by units, power transaction between MGs and main grid, operation and maintenance cost of resources and cost of pollutants emission. Considering MG concept in smart grids, the balance between supply-demand is secured through power exchanging between MGs and main grid, so that the value of objective function be minimised. The imperialist competitive algorithm is applied to solve proposed problem and obtained results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation method.

Maximum Power Point Tracking Strategy for Large-Scale Wind Generation Systems Considering Wind Turbine Dynamics

Abstract: Under the global trend of renewable energy development, various advanced techniques such as forecasting algorithm, intelligent computation, and optimal control are expected to make the complex and uncertain renewable energy system stable and profitable in the near future. This paper presents a new control strategy for large-scale wind energy conversion systems to achieve a balance between power output maximization and operating cost minimization. First, an intelligent maximum power point tracking (IMPPT) algorithm is proposed such that short-term wind speed prediction, wind turbine dynamics, and MPPT are collectively considered to improve system efficiency. Second, in view of a spatial and temporal distribution of wind speed disturbances, a box uncertainty set is embedded in the forecast wind speed, which is likely more realistic for practicing engineers. Then, the IMPPT and box uncertainties are applied to the wind energy conversion system (WECS) control strategy, which is formulated as a min-max optimization problem and efficiently solved with semi-definite programming (SDP). Finally, a comparison with the conventional MPPT control method demonstrates that the proposed approach can obtain higher efficiency, which validates this paper.

Reliability Comparison of Wind Turbines With DFIG and PMG Drive Trains

Abstract: Modern wind turbines vary greatly in their drive train configurations. With the variety of options available, it can be difficult to determine which type is most suitable for on and offshore applications. A large percentage of modern drive trains consist of either doubly fed induction generators with partially rated converters or permanent magnet generators with fully rated converters. These configurations are the focus of this empirical reliability comparison. The turbine population for this analysis contains over 1800 doubly fed induction generators, partially rated converter wind turbines, and 400 permanent magnet generator fully rated converter wind turbines. The turbines analyzed are identical except for their drive train configurations and are modern MW scale turbines making this population the largest and most modern encountered in the literature review. Results of the analysis include overall failure rates, failure rates per operational year, failure rates per failure mode, and failure rates per failure cost category for the two drive train configurations. These results contribute toward deciding on the most suitable turbine type for a particular site, as well as toward cost of energy comparisons for different drive train types. A comparison between failure rates from this analysis and failure rates from similar analyses is also shown in this paper.

Self‐similarity and turbulence characteristics of wind turbine wakes via large‐eddy simulation

Abstract: Mean and turbulent properties of the wake generated by a single wind turbine are studied in this paper with a new large eddy simulation (LES) code, the wind turbine and turbulence simulator (WiTTS hereafter). WiTTS uses a scale-dependent Lagrangian dynamical model of the sub-grid shear stress and actuator lines to simulate the effects of the rotating blades. WiTTS is first tested by simulating neutral boundary layers without and with a wind turbine and then used to study the common assumptions of self-similarity and axisymmetry of the wake under neutral conditions for a variety of wind speeds and turbine properties. We find that the wind velocity deficit generally remains self similarity to a Gaussian distribution in the horizontal. In the vertical, the Gaussian self-similarity is still valid in the upper part of the wake, but it breaks down in the region of the wake close to the ground. The horizontal expansion of the wake is always faster and greater than the vertical expansion under neutral stability due to wind shear and impact with the ground. Two modifications to existing equations for the mean velocity deficit and the maximum added turbulence intensity are proposed and successfully tested. The anisotropic wake expansion is taken into account in the modified model of the mean velocity deficit. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budgets show that production and advection exceed dissipation and turbulent transport. The nacelle causes significant increase of every term in the TKE budget in the near wake. In conclusion, WiTTS performs satisfactorily in the rotor region of wind turbine wakes under neutral stability. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A survey of health monitoring systems for wind turbines

Abstract: Wind energy has played an increasingly vital role in renewable power generation, driving the need for more cost-effective wind energy solutions. Health monitoring of turbines could provide a variety of economic and other benefits to aid in wind growth. A number of commercial and research health monitoring systems have been implemented for wind turbines. This paper surveys these systems, providing an analysis of the current state of turbine health monitoring and the challenges associated with monitoring each of the major turbine components. This paper also contextualizes the survey with the various potential benefits of health monitoring for turbines.

Blending HVDC-Link Energy Storage and Offshore Wind Turbine Inertia for Fast Frequency Response

Abstract: This paper explores the benefits of combining the dc-link energy storage of a voltage source converter-based high-voltage dc (VSC-HVDC) link and the kinetic energy storage from wind turbines to facilitate in fast primary frequency control and system inertia to an ac network. Alongside physical and analytical justifications, a method is proposed which blends the energy stored in the HVDC link with the power control capabilities of the wind turbines to provide frequency response that is fast while not requiring excessive volume of capacitance nor demanding performance requirements on the wind turbines.

Designing large arrays of tidal turbines: A synthesis and review

Abstract: Much of the global tidal current energy resource lies in the accelerated flows along narrow channels. These channels have the potential to produce 10–1000 s of MW of electricity. However, realizing 100 MW of a channel׳s potential is much more complex than installing 100 1-MW turbines because large scale power extraction reduces tidal currents throughout the channel, changing the resource. This synthesis and review gives an overview of the issues and compromises in designing the layout of the large tidal turbine arrays required to realize this potential. The paper focuses on macro- and micro-design of arrays. Macro-design relates to the total number of turbines and their gross arrangement into rows, while micro-design adjusts the relative positions of the turbines within a grid and the spacing between rows. Interdependent macro-design compromises balance the total number of turbines, array power output, the power output of each turbine, the loads the turbines experience, turbine construction costs, maintaining navigability along the channel and any environmental impacts due to flow reduction. A strong emphasis is placed on providing physical insights about how “channel-scale dynamics” and the “duct-effect” impact on the compromises in array design. This work is relevant to the design of any “large” array which blocks more than 2–5% of a channel׳s cross-section, be it 2 turbines in a small channel or 100 turbines in a large channel.