Passive vibration control of a floating hydrostatic transmission wind turbine and theoretical extensions

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr X Zhao
School of Engineering
University of Warwick

Standard

EPSRC

01 June 2018

30 June 2020

25 months

£101,062

Systems engineering

West Midlands

NC : Engineering

Dr X Zhao, School of Engineering, University of Warwick

Project Contact, Institute of Systems Science, NUS, Singapore
Project Contact, Imperial College London
Project Contact, FTI Consulting, USA
Project Contact, Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnburg, Germany
Project Contact, University of Twente
Project Contact, University Centre Somerset
Project Contact, Bury College
Project Contact, University of Oxford

Short summary:This proposal will develop novel passive damping technology to dampen the vibrations of the floating platform of a new type of wind turbine employing the hydrostatic transmission drivetrain, and develop a stability theory for coupled infinite-dimensional systems with nonlinear feedback.Background:In order to capture the highest quality wind resources, wind turbines are getting deployed further offshore with the floating wind turbine technology. However the floating wind turbines face more severe challenges from weather and wave conditions than their fixed-bottom counterparts. The motions of the floating platform not only cause large fluctuations in the rotor speed and generator power, but also cause considerable load variations on the tower base. Known vibration reduction methods are by torque control and by blade pitch control. But these methods are effective at the expense of interfering with the power generation and the latter will increase blade pitch actuator usage. Structural control, e.g., using tuned mass damper (TMD) or tuned liquid column damper (TLCD), might offer a good alternative solution. They are free from electrical faults, but a big disadvantage of TMD/TLCD type of dampers is that they have a large mass and/or a large amount of liquid, leading to substantial extra weight, this could be prevented if they made use of existing turbine components. However, practical considerations have shown that existing components cannot be used, so this is not a realistic solution for conventional wind turbines. A new type of wind turbine called hydrostatic transmission wind turbine (HSTWT), could provide the suitable mass and liquid component.Control Application:The proposed project will investigate how to make use of the hydraulic reservoir of the floating barge mounted HSTWT to dampen the vibrations of the floating platform, by acting as a novel damper. This will simply give the reservoir a dual function with very small extra costs. During the project we will use existing simulation model of the floating wind turbines developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory for detailed simulation analysis. This model will be modified to include the HST drivetrain, coupled dynamics of the barge-reservoir system, and pitch and torque controllers. The optimal damper design will be based on two simple models obtained from the above simulation model through system identification, and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm.Control theory:The above tower (including the barge) - damper system is the interconnection of two passive systems. However this does not automatically lead to stability. We abstract this problem as stability theory and look even further: assuming the tower is flexible, which is described by partial differential equations, so that it is an infinite-dimensional system. When two systems influence each other in both directions, they are known as a coupled system. Coupled systems in engineering often consist of an infinite-dimension system interacting with a finite-dimensional system, i.e., a system that can be described by ordinary differential equations. Such coupled systems have been recently the topic of intense research in the linear case. The case of a nonlinear finite-dimensional system is open and challenging. Thus it will be very interesting to develop a stability theory for the interconnection of a passive linear infinite-dimensional system and a passive nonlinear finite-dimensional system. The equations of the coupled system can be rewritten as an abstract second order differential equation in a Hilbert space, with a nonlinear damping term. We aim to investigate the stability properties of such systems using monotone operator theory and Lyapunov functions. This work requires an in-depth understanding of fluid mechanics, structural dynamics and control theory and engineering, all of which are well represented in the PI's multi-disciplinary background

04/02/19