Turbine Dynamics and Control

Yaw Damper Tests:  The turbine on Mt. Tom is a downwind free-yaw machine, meaning that the rotor is located downwind of the tower.  Free-yaw turbines are allowed to follow the wind (or "yaw") as the direction changes.  Under certain conditions the yaw motion should be slowed with a damper.  An original AOC developed damper design has led to testing of a redesigned damper system.  If successful, this redesigned damper will benefit other turbine manufacturers.

Advanced Control for Variable Speed Turbines:  Operation of wind turbines at variable speed has the potential of increasing the energy output while decreasing loads. A variable speed turbine controller that incorporates fuzzy logic has the advantage of being adaptable to any wind turbine as well being able to improve generator electrical efficiency.  A variable speed turbine controller that incorporates control based on the non-linear aerodynamics of wind turbines has the advantage of allowing more optimal operation over the entire wind speed range that wind turbines are subject to.  Rapid controls system prototyping techniques facilitate testing of new and potentially very different control system algorithms.  These new control system principles, to be tested on the RERL Mt. Tom turbine, may be useful to a wide range of wind turbine manufacturers. 

Integration into Electrical Systems: Modern wind turbines are designed to be connected to electrical systems.  This connection means that wind turbines interact not only with their local environment, but that they can cause and are subject to dynamics on the electrical grid.  Grid connection modeling and verification are the first steps in investigating grid-friendly wind turbine controllers and other devices and systems that could substantially ease the integration of more wind turbines into the electrical power system.  Results from this research will be useful to a wide range of entities including wind turbine manufacturers and electrical power systems users and operators.