Operational Curve of the Drive Train

of
Variable Speed Wind Turbines

AUTOMATED COMPUTING MACHINERY S.L.

c/Playa de Lagoa,1 - 28660 Boadilla del Monte
Madrid
+34 605876613 - +34816323812
www.acm-sl.com

May 2013

Contents
1.

Main applications......................................................................................3

1.1.

Nominal Wind reduction in existing Wind Turbines..................................3

1.2.

Repowering of Wind Turbines...............................................................3

1.3. Learning about the implications of the key parameters in the overall
behavior of the Drive Train............................................................................3
2.

Sinopsis..................................................................................................4

3.

Description..............................................................................................5

4.

Other functionalities.................................................................................7

4.1.

Visualization of the Blades Cp.............................................................7

4.2.

Note books........................................................................................8

4.3.

Presentation of calculations (pus)........................................................9

1. Main applications
1.1.
Nominal Wind reduction in existing Wind
Turbines
Incrementing the blade length resulst in lowering the value of the mnimum wind
speed for Nominal Power (Nominal Power). That is a solution that can be adopted in
order to increment the yearly production in low wind sites.
This application allows to see the influence of this change in the Nominal Power, a
complex relationship. It can also show the influence of this changes in other aspects
of the Wind Turbine, such as on the Pitch System.

1.2.

Repowering of Wind Turbines

In some cases it seems adviseable to increment the Nominal Power of a given Wind
Turbine. This application allows to compute and see the influence of all the
parameters that has influence in the behavior of the Drive Train in the key variable
evolutions: generated power vs wind speed, rotational speed vs wind speed, pitch
angle vs wind speed, generated power vs rotational speed.
The calculation speed and the associated processing tools allows the
experimentation with several parameter sets in order to achieve the best suite
done.

1.3.
Learning about the implications of the key
parameters in the overall behavior of the Drive
Train
You may observe the influence of:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Blades length
Gearbox ratio
Synchronous speed of the Generator
Number of magnetic poles of the Generator
Air density
The 4 rpms values that defines the 4 control points of the MTTP curve

In the key working loci:

1. Power vs drive train rpms.
2. Drive Train rpms vs wind speed
3. Power vs wind speed
4. Drive Train rpms vs wind speed
5. Pitch angle vs wind speed
You can see the working value of the Aerodynamic Coefficient (Cp) represented as a
function of the TSR (Tip Speed vs wind speed Ratio) with the Pitch angle as
parameter.
Calculations are done practically in real time.

2. Sinopsis
Modern industrial Wind Turbines are able to work in wide ranges of wind speed in
order to maximize the intake of energy from each possible site they are located.
This requirement has several implications, one of them being the need to adjust the
pitch angle of the blades according to the working wind speed. This control must
take into account the form of the blade and the wind speed and must provide as a
result the pitch angle of the blades and the optimal rotational speed of the drive
train.
The behavior of the blades regarding the energy performance is given by complex,
non-linear formulas that use three parameters: the drive train rotational speed, the
wind speed and the pitch angle of the blades.
The solution to this control problem is well known in industry (see for example the
NREL report Advanced Control Design for Wind Turbines Technical Report
NREL/TP-500-42437- March 2008) and ends-up in a Maximum Power Point Tracking
(MPPT) curve. But actual construction details of wind turbines, besides the complex
behavior of the blades, force to take into account some operational limits in those
variables, such as maximum rotational speed of the blades. Therefore the final
Operational Curve must follow the theoretical MPPT except in some very specific
zones.
One of the consequences of this situation is that is not easy to study the influence
of the construction parameters, such as the radius of the blades or gearbox speed
ratio or the grid frequency in the actual Operational Curve.
This is the reason for the development of this program: to provide the set of
tools and views of the implied variables and control mechanisms so it is easy to
see the result of changes in parameters and/or operational variables in a
graphic way, in real time.

3. Description.

The main panel has 4 graphical panes showing:

Power versus drive train rotational speed, with indication of the actual
operating point, with a background of the set of Power versus Drive Train
rotational speed with wind speed as parameter (green) and the desired
Operational Curve (red).
Drive train rotational speed versus Wind speed, with a background of the
desired Operational Curve.
Blades efficiency coefficient (Cp) versus TSR (Tip Speed Ratio) with Pitch
angle as parameter.
Power and Pitch angle versus Wind Speed, with a background of the desired
Operational Curve

It also presents the user a pane to change the Working mode, either to:

MPPT (assuming that there is a Controller that perfectly computes the

Pitch angle so that the working operation is on the desired Operational
Curve). In this mode, she can change only the Wind speed.
Free, assuming there is no Controller so the user must change (i.e.
compute manually) the working conditions for a given wind speed.

There is a pane where the user can define the form of the Operational Curve,
modifying the 5 points A, B, C, D and E.

Another pane permits the setting of parameters:

Blade radius
Air density
Gearbox ratio
Nominal power (this is used as reference for the per unit (pu) values.
Generator details: working Frequency and Number of poles

The main target is that the user has a real time presentation of all the calculations
of the drive train in two situations:
a) Assuming there is a perfect Controller for the Pitch angle.
b) There is not Controller of the Pitch angle.
NOTE: this program needs (ask for) a version of the Blades Cp description in the
form of a particular DLL. It is delivered with the formula that is most used in the
technical literature for simulation. Nevertheless it is possible to use other
descriptions or formulas. To create the corresponding DLL please get in touch with
ACM SL.

4. Other functionalities.
4.1.

Visualization of the Blades Cp.

It is very important to have a clear understanding of the blades efficiency

coefficient (Cp): for that the application includes a 3D visualization of this formula
so the user can see the implications of the changes in the operational conditions.
See next figures.

4.2.

Note books

The application include an spreadsheet connected to the internal calculations engine

and two menu options that allow the immediate transfer of parameters and
calculations to sheets in the spreadsheet.

In this way the tedious process of taking note of the calculations for a given set of
parameters and operational conditions is greatly reduced.
The content of these spreadsheets can be stored for later used or transfer to other
format, such as .CSV or .xls file formats.
The functionalities of these spreadsheets include the creation of graphical reports,
such as the shown in next figure.

4.3.

Presentation of calculations (pus)

The graphical panels present the corresponding calculations in actual values or un

pu (per unit) mode, quite handy for engineering studies.
To change between both presentations the user just click on them.