MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF A WIND TURBINE

Project Report

P.G.S.R.WIJETUNGA; K.G.R.M.JAYATHILAKE
11/17/2014

TABLE OF CONTENT
1.0 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................. 2
1.1 WIND TURBINE AERODYNAMICS ....................................................................................... 2
1.2 POWER CURVE AND ROTOR SPEED CURVE ......................................................................... 2
2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................... 3
2.1 DESIGN PRAMETERS .......................................................................................................... 4
2.1.1 Cut in wind speed ( ) .............................................................................................. 4
2.1.2 Rotor speed (
) ..................................................................................................... 4
2.1.3 Rated wind speed ( )................................................................................................ 4
3.0 GEAR BOX DESIGN ........................................................................................................ 5
4.0 CONTROL STRATEGY .................................................................................................. 6
4.1 TORQUE CONTROLLER ....................................................................................................... 6
4.2 PITCH CONTROLLER ........................................................................................................... 7
5.0 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................... 8
5.1 RAMP WIND PROFILE ......................................................................................................... 8
5.2 STEP WISE WIND PROFILE................................................................................................. 10
5.3 IMPULSE WIND PROFILE ................................................................................................... 12
TABLE OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: POWER VS. WIND SPEED CURVE .................................................................................. 2
FIGURE 2: ROTOR SPEED VS WIND SPEED .................................................................................... 3
FIGURE 3: SIMULATIONX MODEL ................................................................................................ 6
FIGURE 4: SIMULATION X ANIMATION MODEL............................................................................. 6
FIGURE 5: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE TORQUE CONTROLLER......................................................... 7
FIGURE 6: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE PITCH CONTROLLER ............................................................ 8
FIGURE 7: WIND SPEED VS TIME ................................................................................................. 8
FIGURE 8: GENERATOR POWER VS. TIME .................................................................................... 8
FIGURE 9: GENERATOR SPEED VS. TIME ...................................................................................... 9
FIGURE 10: PITCH ANGLE VS. TIME ............................................................................................. 9
FIGURE 11: GENERATOR TORQUE VS. TIME ................................................................................. 9
FIGURE 12: WIND POWER VS. TIME ........................................................................................... 10
FIGURE 13: WIND SPEED VS. TIME ............................................................................................ 10
FIGURE 14: GENERATOR POWER VS. TIME ................................................................................ 10
FIGURE 15: WIND SPEED VS TIME ............................................................................................. 11
FIGURE 16: GENERATOR TORQUE VS. TIME ............................................................................... 11
FIGURE 17: PITCH ANGLE VS. TIME ........................................................................................... 11
FIGURE 18: WIND POWER VS. TIME .......................................................................................... 12
FIGURE 19: WIND SPEED VS. TIME ............................................................................................ 12
FIGURE 20: GENERATOR POWER VS. TIME ................................................................................ 12
FIGURE 21: GENERATOR SPEED VS. TIME ................................................................................. 13
FIGURE 22: GENERATOR TORQUE VS. TIME .............................................................................. 13
FIGURE 23: PITCH ANGLE VS. TIME .......................................................................................... 13
FIGURE 24: WIND POWER VS. TIME .......................................................................................... 14

1.0 Introduction
Nowadays, the world is looking forward to various renewable energy forms. Among those,
wind energy is more popular and the wind turbine farms construction is now a common fact.
As the wind turbine technology getting advanced, design of powerful control systems is
required to improve wind turbines behavior. There are mainly two types of wind turbines
namely fixed speed and variable speed. Those two types can divided into two sub categories
as fixed pitch and variable pitch. Here in this project the interest is on variable speed variable
pitch wind turbines.
1.1 Wind turbine Aerodynamics
The power extracted by the rotor is,
(1)
(

(2)

(3)
(4)

R- Radius of the rotor

- Pitch angle of the blades
- tip speed ratio
- Rotor speed
Vt- tip speed
u- Wind speed
- Density of air
Cp- power coefficient or wind turbine efficiency
1.2 Power Curve and rotor speed curve
Power curve specifies how much power can be extracted from the incoming wind. Figure 1
contains an ideal wind turbine power curve. Figure 2 contains the rotor speed curve.

Figure 1: Power vs. wind speed curve

Rotor speed

Rated speed

uci

III

un ur
uco
Wind speed

Figure 2: Rotor speed vs Wind speed

Region I is the max-Cp region where the pitch angle is set to zero & the tip speed ratio is
maintained at constant by varying the rotor speed. Cut in wind speed (u ci) the wind speed
where wind cant generate a reasonable torque to rotate the turbine. Below that the turbine is
at rest. Here torque is controlled to obtain the rated air power by varying the rotor speed.
Region III is the maximum power region where turbine output power is kept at rated power.
Cut out wind speed (uco) is the maximum wind speed the turbine can generate power without
any damage to the structure. Beyond that speed rotor is locked. In this region pitch is
controlled to keep the turbine at rated power by maintaining a constant torque.
Region II is the transition region between other two; here the maximum allowable tip speed is
maintained. Region transits when the obtainable air power reaches rated value at rated wind
speed (ur).
2.0 Problem statement
A wind turbine drive train has to be designed with some given parameters and it has to fulfill
certain performance requirements according to the problem. Some of the main parameters are
been given. The wind turbine has a nominal power of 2 MW and has a blade radius of 35m.
The maximum allowable tip speed is 60 ms-1. The generator has a nominal power of 2.1 MW
at a nominal speed of 1550 revmin-1.
With the above details and the requirements the turbine drive train should be able to respond
according to the following conditions with various performance indices.
Interval A: If the wind speed is so small that the available power is less than 10% of the
nominal power then the wind turbine should be at rest.
Interval B: Otherwise the power factor should be kept at its optimum value, i.e., keep = 6
and = 0. This interval is valid until the optimal tip speed ratio cannot be fulfilled without
violating the maximum allowable tip speed.
Interval C: Otherwise, maintain maximum allowable tip speed. This interval is valid until
the obtainable air power reaches the nominal value.

Interval D: Otherwise, maintain maximum allowable tip speed and nominal air power, i.e.,
constant generator torque. This interval is valid until the maximum acceptable wind speed is
reached, u max =25 ms-1.
Interval E: Finally, with the wind speed larger than its maximum acceptable value the wind
turbine should be at rest.
In order to obtain the required results a wind turbine drive train has been modeled using
|SimulationX software and the required results are obtained using that model.
2.1 Design parameters
In order to achieve the given task, certain wind speed values, control systems and |simulation
results has to be obtained. Below, in the following section, some important wind speeds
related to the three regions of figure 2, are calculated
2.1.1 Cut in wind speed (

Below this speed, the wind power extracted is less than 10% of the nominal value.
Here pitch angle () is 0 (zero) and tip speed ratio () should be kept at 6.
Pair is 0.2 MW at this wind speed.
Rotor radius R = 35 m and Air density

at 20 .

By substituting the values in equation (2),

Then by equation (1),

2.1.2 Rotor speed (

Maximum allowable tip speed is

should be kept at 6.

, pitch angle () is 0 (zero) and tip speed ratio ()

According to the equation (3)

Then by equation (4)

Maximum rotor speed is at maximum tip speed and it is equal to 1.714 rads-1
2.1.3 Rated wind speed (

At this speed the maximum allowable air power is extracted and maximum allowable tip
speed is maintained. The pitch angle remains in zero at this speed.
From equation (3)
Substituting the value in equation (2)

Then by equation (1),

Cut off wind speed

= 25ms-1.
3.0 Gear box design
A gear is consisting with one planetary gear stage and two regular stages. The gear ratio was
identified to satisfy the following requirement. When the tip speed is at its maximum value,
the generator should operate close to its nominal speed. The main shaft of the rotor is
connected to the planet carrier of the planetary gear stage and the sun shaft connected to the
regular gear stage and output from the second regular stage is connected to the generator
rotor shaft.
Maximum rotor speed

= 1.714 rads1

Generator nominal speed

=1550*2/60 rads-1

Overall gear ratio

=
= 94.699

Hence the following gear ratios have been selected.

Overall gear ratio as 96
Planetary gear ratio as 6
Each of other stages having a gear ratio of 4.
The annular gear (or the ring gear) is held stationary and the sun gear is driven by the power
supplied to the planet carrier.
Gear ratio of the planetary stage

= Teeth on the driven gear / Teeth on driving gear

6 = Tsun / Tplanetcarrier
6 = Tsun / (Tring+Tsun)
Tring / Tsun = 5
So number of teeth on the ring gear, sun gear and planet gear is selected as 150, 30 and 60
respectively.
For both the regular gear stages, teeth of the driven gears and drive gears are selected as 18
and 72 respectively to make gear ratio of 4 for each stage.

Figure 3: SimulationX model

Figure 4: Simulation x animation model

4.0 Control Strategy
When power production is below the rated power of the machine, the turbine operates at
variable rotor speeds to capture the maximum amount of energy available in the wind.
Generator torque provides the control input to vary the rotor speed, and the blade pitch angle
is held constant in this period. In above-rated power conditions, the primary objective is to
maintain a constant power output. This is generally achieved by varying the blade pitch angle
while holding the generator torque constant. So here two types of controllers have been used
to achieve maximum power output as much as possible.
4.1 Torque controller
Figure 4 shows the designed torque controller which uses a pid controller. Feedback controls
the speed of the generator while Set point (
) for the PID block is set by calculating the
generator speed according to the wind speed in different regions as below.
If the wind speed is less than uci
If else wind speed is less than un then

= 6*u*gear ratio/35

If else wind speed is less than uco wind speed then

Else

= 155/3(rated value)

Torque controller transfer function (TTF) =

= (

PID block transfer function

Where G, and
are gain integral time and derivative time respectively. Limiter function
make sure torque is within and 1
where

Figure 5: Block diagram of the torque controller

4.2 Pitch controller
For the pich controller we used a feed forward controller with a PID feedback controller. We
have calculated the pitch angle for the maximum power output corresponding to the wind
speed and it is summed with the output of the feedback controller and fed to the pitch control
device.
Torque controller is the feedback input while reference point is set according to the following
conditions.
If the wind speed is less than ur reference torque is equal to generator torque

If it is less than cut off wind speed it is equal to

Pitch controller transfer function (TTF) =
PID block transfer function

= (

( )

Where G, and
are gain integral time and derivative time respectively. Limiter function
make sure pitch is within 00 and 300.

Figure 6: Block diagram of the pitch controller

5.0 Results
Following results were obtained for different wind profiles
5.1 Ramp wind profile

Figure 7: Wind speed vs Time

Figure 8: Generator power vs. Time

Figure 9: generator speed vs. Time

Figure 10: Pitch angle vs. Time

Figure 11: Generator torque vs. Time

Figure 12: Wind power vs. Time

5.2 Step wise wind profile

Figure 13: Wind speed vs. Time

Figure 14: Generator power vs. Time

Figure 15: Wind speed vs Time

Figure 16: Generator torque vs. Time

Figure 17: Pitch angle vs. Time

Figure 18: Wind Power vs. Time

5.3 Impulse wind profile

Figure 19: Wind Speed vs. Time

Figure 20: Generator Power vs. Time

Figure 21: Generator Speed vs. Time

Figure 22: Generator Torque vs. Time

Figure 23: Pitch Angle vs. Time

Figure 24: Wind Power vs. Time