Inicio  /  Energies  /  Vol: 5 Núm: 4Pages8 Par: April (2012)  /  Artículo
ARTÍCULO
TITULO

H8 Based Control for Load Mitigation in Wind Turbines

Asier Diaz de Corcuera    
Aron Pujana-Arrese    
Jose M. Ezquerra    
Edurne Segurola and Joseba Landaluze    

Resumen

This article demonstrates a strategy to design multivariable and multi-objective controllers based on the H8 norm reduction applied to a wind turbine. The wind turbine model has been developed in the GH Bladed software and it is based on a 5 MW wind turbine defined in the Upwind European project. The designed control strategy works in the above rated power production zone and performs generator speed control and load reduction on the drive train and tower. In order to do this, two robust H8 MISO (Multi-Input Single-Output) controllers have been developed. These controllers generate collective pitch angle and generator torque set-point values to achieve the imposed control objectives. Linear models obtained in GH Bladed 4.0 are used, but the control design methodology can be used with linear models obtained from any other modelling package. Controllers are designed by setting out a mixed sensitivity problem, where some notch filters are also included in the controller dynamics. The obtained H8 controllers have been validated in GH Bladed and an exhaustive analysis has been carried out to calculate fatigue load reduction on wind turbine components, as well as to analyze load mitigation in some extreme cases. The analysis compares the proposed control strategy based on H8 controllers to a baseline control strategy designed using the classical control methods implemented on the present wind turbines.