Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, to overcome the challenging problem of the vibration suppression in the wind turbine blade, an active robust adaptive finite-time model reference controller is introduced. First, edgewise vibrations of the wind turbine blade, with consideration of the platform heave displacements, is modeled by Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. Then, the appropriate adaptation laws and control laws are introduced to compensate the uncertainties and guarantee the convergence to the desired reference model. The robustness and convergence of the designed adaptation and control laws are mathematically proved via finite-time Lyapunov theory. Performance of the designed robust adaptive finite-time... 

In this article, the effects of the changes in the mass of the floating wind turbine (as a multi-body system) on its nonlinear vertical vibrations are investigated. The fluctuations of the hydrodynamic added mass of the floating platform and the mass of the vibration absorbers, which added to the structure to mitigate the lateral vibrations, change the mass and consequently the dynamics of the vertical vibrations. In this regard, first, the governing equations of the vertical vibrations of the floating wind turbine are derived. The FAST code is used to validate the proposed model of the dynamics of the vertical vibrations through numerical simulations. Then, derived equations are solved... 

An extensive experimental investigation was conducted to study the effects of Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD), on the flow field of an airfoil at low Reynolds number. The DBD was mounted near the leading edge of a section of a wind turbine blade. It is believed that DBD can postpone the separation point on the airfoil by injecting momentum to the flow. The effects of steady actuations on the velocity profiles in the wake region have been investigated. The tests were performed at α = 4 to 36 degrees i.e. from low to deep stall angles of attack regions. Both surface pressure distribution and wake profile show remarkable improvement at high angles of attack, beyond the static stall angle of... 

Effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma have been studied on the wake velocity profiles of a section of a 660 kW wind turbine blade in plunging motion in a wind tunnel. The corresponding unsteady velocity profiles show remarkable improvement when the plasma actuators were operating and the angles of attack of the model were beyond the static stall angles of the airfoil. As a result the drag force was considerably reduced. It is further observed that the plasma-induced flow attenuates the leading edge vortices that are periodically shed into wake and diminishes the large eddies downstream. The favorable effects of the plasma augmentation are shown to occur near the uppermost and... 

This paper introduces a new methodology for designing and optimizing the performance of hydraulic Cross-Flow turbines for a wide range of operating conditions. The methodology is based on a one-step approach for the system-level design phase and a three-step, successive numerical analysis approach for the detail design phase. Compared to current design methodologies, not only does this approach break down the process into well-defined steps and simplify it, but it also has the advantage that once numerical simulations are conducted for a single turbine, most of the results can be used for an entire class of Cross-Flow turbines. In this paper, after a discussion of the research background, we... 

Ethylene dichloride thermal cracking is one of the conventional methods for hydrogen chloride production. A critical issue concerned with this method is to provide thermal energy for cracking reaction, which is generally provided by the flammable gasses inside the furnace. Utilizing renewable energy sources can be an interesting topic in this case. Hence, in this paper, the thermal integration feasibility of an ethylene dichloride cracking unit with a hybrid renewable plant, based on geothermal and wind energies, is investigated, while the case study for wind turbines system (Alstom ECO 74/1670/ Class II model) is Meshkin Shahr, located in Iran. To utilize geothermal energy, a... 

Reducing the renewable energy costs is necessary for the competition with the fossil energies and control strategies have great impact on the efficiency of wind machines. In the wind turbine industry, a practical approach is to maximize the energy capture of a wind machine by optimizing the power coefficient in the under-rated situations. In this paper, with the main objective of maximizing the energy capture in the second region, four different control strategies are compared in the presence of uncertainties. The proposed control methods are compared based on their power capture and robustness against probable uncertainties in the structural and environmental parameters. A two-mass... 

We have investigated the usage of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator to improve the aerodynamic performance of an offshore 6 MW wind turbine. By controlling the aerodynamic load combined with pitch angles of 2, 5, and 10 degrees, we studied the plasma actuator effect on the overall harvested power. Actuators were installed in single and tandem configurations in different chord-wise locations to find the optimum design. The improved phenomenological model developed by authors was used in an analysis to simulate the interaction of the electrostatic field, the ionized particles and the fluid flow. A design software was used to estimate the harvested power of the real 3D blade.... 

Various methods are devised to capture renewable energy or waste heat from different sectors, where among all, waste heat capturing from the generator of a wind turbine through the cooling process for freshwater and cooling production is paid less attention in Iran, in spite of the fact that many wind farms in Iran are in hot and humid regions and the residents nearby the farms desperately need freshwater and cooling load. To surmount this problem, waste heat extraction from a wind turbine (Enercon 70 Model) for freshwater and cooling production is proposed in this study. Instead of dissipating this thermal energy of the wind turbine into the environment, it can be used for freshwater and... 

Over recent years, the concept of waste heat recovery from the generators of wind turbines for driving a thermal-driven desalination system was introduced, and its advantages were highlighted. However, any selection of a bottoming thermal-driven desalination system among different existing technologies should be taken under consideration before making an ultimate recommendation. Unfortunately, no comprehensive comparison is available in the literature to compare the performance as well as the cost aspects of using the waste thermal energy of the generator of a wind turbine for desalinating seawater, comparing them with those of a layout where the power of the wind turbine is directly... 

As wind energy is becoming one of the fastest-growing renewable energy resources, controlling large-scale wind turbines remains a challenging task due to its system model nonlinearities and high external uncertainties. The main goal of the current work is to propose an intelligent control of the wind turbine system without the need for model identification. For this purpose, a novel model-independent nonsingular terminal sliding-mode control (MINTSMC) using the basic principles of the ultra-local model (ULM) and combined with the single input interval type-2 fuzzy logic control (SIT2-FLC) is developed for non-linear wind turbine pitch angle control. In the suggested control framework, the... 

Wind turbine blade life prediction is the most important parameter to estimate the power generation cost. Due to the price and importance of wind blade, many experimental and theoretical methods were developed to estimate damages and blade life. A novel multiaxial fatigue damage model is suggested for the life prediction of a wind turbine blade. Fatigue reduction of fiber and interfiber characteristics are separately treated and simulated in this research. Damage behavior is considered in lamina level and then extended to laminate; hence, this model can be used for multidirectional laminated composites. The procedure of fatigue-induced degradation is implemented in an ABAQUS user material... 

Small Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) are widely used in small rooftop wind turbines. In order to inject the electric power generated by the PMSG, into the grid, a back-to-back AC/DC/AC converter is required. In this paper, a low cost with high efficiency converter is proposed for the rectifier stage to obtain the maximum power per ampere of PMSG. This structure based on Discontinuous Conduction Mode Single-Ended Primary Inductor Converter (DCM SEPIC) with a single power electronic switch, proposes a converter which is cost-effective and suitable for the small wind turbine used in residential applications. Furthermore, other advantages of the proposed converter include... 

As wind energy is becoming one of the fastest-growing renewable energy resources, controlling large-scale wind turbines remains a challenging task due to its system model nonlinearities and high external uncertainties. The main goal of the current work is to propose an intelligent control of the wind turbine system without the need for model identification. For this purpose, a novel model-independent nonsingular terminal sliding-mode control (MINTSMC) using the basic principles of the ultra-local model (ULM) and combined with the single input interval type-2 fuzzy logic control (SIT2-FLC) is developed for non-linear wind turbine pitch angle control. In the suggested control framework, the... 

Wind turbine blade life prediction is the most important parameter to estimate the power generation cost. Due to the price and importance of wind blade, many experimental and theoretical methods were developed to estimate damages and blade life. A novel multiaxial fatigue damage model is suggested for the life prediction of a wind turbine blade. Fatigue reduction of fiber and interfiber characteristics are separately treated and simulated in this research. Damage behavior is considered in lamina level and then extended to laminate; hence, this model can be used for multidirectional laminated composites. The procedure of fatigue-induced degradation is implemented in an ABAQUS user material... 

Small Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs) are widely used in small rooftop wind turbines. In order to inject the electric power generated by the PMSG, into the grid, a back-to-back AC/DC/AC converter is required. In this paper, a low cost with high efficiency converter is proposed for the rectifier stage to obtain the maximum power per ampere of PMSG. This structure based on Discontinuous Conduction Mode Single-Ended Primary Inductor Converter (DCM SEPIC) with a single power electronic switch, proposes a converter which is cost-effective and suitable for the small wind turbine used in residential applications. Furthermore, other advantages of the proposed converter include... 

In this research, the fault-tolerant pitch angle control of a horizontal axis wind turbine in region 3 (where the wind velocity is greater than rated wind speed) is investigated. The effective wind velocity (EWV) is one of the necessary information for each control system. Wind speed is measured by the anemometers on the top of the nacelle however, the measurement is not precise and is only applicable for one point in the rotor. To address this issue, we have developed a novel hybrid approach. The approach is based on a sliding mode observer to estimate the aerodynamic torque and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is introduced for obtaining the EWV. The estimated aerodynamic... 

In this paper, the control problem of a wind turbine in region 3 (where the wind velocity is between the rated wind velocity and cut out wind velocity) has been investigated by considering the aerodynamic nonlinear behavior of the wind-structure interaction. The model has been developed by using the blade element momentum (BEM) theory to obtain the aerodynamic torque and aerodynamic loads in edgewise and flapwise directions. For validation, the aerodynamic behavior of the onshore NREL 5 MW turbine has been compared with the Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence (FAST) aeroelastic code in terms of the power coefficient. Wind speed is modelled as a three-dimensional profile with... 

With the proliferation of intermittent renewable energy sources, power systems need to withstand an increasing number of disturbances that may affect system frequency. In this paper, we focus on the effects of high penetration level of wind turbine-generators (WTG) on the power system operational planning from the frequency point of view. Specifically, an exact formulation for the minimum frequency calculation is presented to increase accuracy and speed of analyses. Then, the effect of WTG's frequency response on the power system frequency stability is investigated to compute the maximum acceptable generation outage as a function of penetration level. Finally, as an application to power... 

The integration of renewable energy (RE)-based distributed generation (DG) with electric power distribution systems (DSs) in association with smart grid technology has numerous benefits, however, due to their intermittent nature, the utilisation of RE-based DG may pose threats to the proper operation of conventional overcurrent (OC) protection schemes. The resulting threats, malfunctions, and non-selective actions could occur by relays within the DS, and the development of efficient protection schemes is necessary. The objective of this study is to propose and simulate an adaptive OC protection scheme in DSs in the presence of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines based on wind...