Accelerated Controller Tuning for Wind Turbines Under Multiple Hazards

Abstract

During their lifecycle, wind turbines can be subjected to multiple hazard loads, such as high-intensity wind, earthquake, wave, and mechanical unbalance. Excessive vibrations, due to these loads, can have detrimental effects on energy production, structural lifecycle, and the initial cost of wind turbines. Vibration control by various means, such as passive, active, and semi-active control systems provide crucial solutions to these issues. We developed a novel control theory that enables semi-active controller tuning under the complex structural behavior and inherent system nonlinearity. The proposed theory enables the evaluation of semi-active controllers’ performance of multi-degrees-of-freedom systems, without the need for time-consuming simulations. A wide range of controllers can be tested in a fraction of a second, and their parameters can be tuned to achieve system-level performance for different optimization objectives.

Energy Storage and Installed Wind Capacity Requirements for the Substitution of Fossil Fuels in the Electricity Generation Sector

“…Wind power for the generation of electricity commenced in the middle of the 20 th century and significantly accelerated since the 1990s [13]. In the recent years research on wind power generation has concentrated primarily on topics related to the optimization of wind turbine operations; materials for stronger turbine blades; the potential for electric power generation globally; the use of satellite data for the surface wind predictions and reduction of wind power generation uncertainty; and the effect of climate change on the wind power in specific regions of the earth [14][15][16][17][18][19].…”