Control engineers from StrathControl will present a technical paper at the EWEA Offshore 2013 Conference Poster Sessions on Wednesday.
This paper describes the work carried out by StrathControl, SgurrEnergy and the University of Strathclyde using LiDAR data to characterise offshore Low Level Jet (LLJ) wind effects observed on a wind farm in the North Sea and to simulate the damaging impact LLJs have on wind turbines through increased loads and fatigue. The paper further describes work to assess the effectiveness of StrathControl’s Individual Blade Control (IBC) solution to detect and alleviate the destructive effects of LLJs.
StrathControl Director Dr. David Robb commented that “LLJs can cross the upper areas of the rotor disc causing high loads on the blades which can cause fatigue throughout the wind turbine resulting in high component failure rates”.
Potential damage from LLJs on large offshore wind turbines will be presented noting downtime and the sizeable O&M costs associated with replacement of major components. LLJs are hard to detect using conventional control systems and the paper looks at the ways their effects can be detected using LiDAR and blade strain gauges. An assessment of the various control options used to alleviate the damaging loads from LLJs is also included. IBC in particular is analysed to determine its effectiveness for reducing high loads caused by the LLJs.
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Press release, November 11, 2013