Sharif Digital Repository

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... 

In the present study, a micro solar Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) system based on Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is thermodynamically and exergoeconomically investigated. Adding a storage tank will lead to the sustainable supply of energy for summer and winter seasons. The model of conservation of energy, conservation of mass, and conservation of linear momentum are applied in order to energy analysis, while a model based on the first and the second laws of thermodynamics are used to exergy analysis. Determining the effective parameters of the system efficiency, including turbine input pressure, turbine inlet temperature, turbine output pressure, and evaporator temperature leads to... 

We study the application of cooperative control and game theoretic approaches to wind farm optimization. The conventional (greedy) wind farm control strategy seeks to individually maximize each turbine power. However, this strategy does not maximize the overall power production of wind farms due to the aerodynamic interactions (wake effect) between the turbines. We formulate the wind farm power optimization problem as an identical interest game which can also be used to solve other cooperative control problems. Two model-free learning algorithms are developed to obtain the optimal axial induction factors of the turbines and maximize power production. The algorithms are simulated for a... 

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... 

Three novel methods, named α, ζ and ϵ, are suggested in this paper to recover the performance loss during switching in the gas turbine control systems. The Minimum Command Selection (MCS) in the gas turbine control systems prompts this performance loss. Any step towards more productivity with less aging factors have a great impact on the gas turbine's lifetime profit and vice versa. Although many hardware upgrades have been studied and applied to accomplish this, in many cases a low-risk manipulation in the software may yield equivalent achievement. State of the art gas turbine control systems are supposed to handle various forms of disturbances, several operation modes and relatively high... 

Wind turbines are of the most promising devices to cut down carbon emissions. However, some phenomena that adversely affect their performance are inevitable. The aim of the present paper is to investigate flow separation prevention exploiting leading edge (LE) single dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (SDBD-PA) on an airfoil belonging to a section of a locally developed wind turbine. The numerical results of the surface pressure distribution over the airfoil were compared with the experimental measurements carried out by the authors on the same blade section, and good agreement was found between numerical and experimental data for both plasma-OFF and plasma-ON cases. An in-depth... 

Wind turbines are generally controlled for the objectives of the turbine protection and generation of the acceptable power for the utility grid. In this paper, a nonlinear multivariable model of the wind turbine with a DFIG generator is considered. The rotor speed and the d-axis rotor current, as the controlled variables, are controlled via manipulation of the two generator voltages, as the control signals. Two robust control strategies including the sliding mode control and H∞ robust control, designed via μ-synthesis based on DK-iteration algorithm, are presented for switching between various operating modes. Development of an acceptable dynamic model and two innovative control strategies... 

Efficient robust control methods are required to keep the boiler-turbine unit performance appropriately. In this paper, a hybrid multivariable robust control strategy including the regulator and observer is designed to improve the performance of an industrial boiler-turbine unit. In the nonlinear model of the process, output variables including the drum pressure, electric power and water level of the drum are controlled at the desired set-points by manipulation of the fuel, steam, and feed-water flow rates. Due to economic and technical reasons and for the estimation of process states, the full-order observer is designed. For disturbance rejection and process stability, a regulator system is... 

Flux reversal permanent magnet generators are well suited for use as wind turbine generators owing to their high torque generation ability and magnetic gear. However, they suffer from poor voltage regulation due to their high winding inductance. In this paper, a design optimization method is proposed for flux reversal generators in wind turbine applications. The proposed method includes a new multiobjective function. Cost, volume of the generator, and mass of the permanent magnet are considered in it independently and simultaneously. Besides the new objective function, the main superiority of this paper compared with published papers is considering winding inductance in optimization... 

Among different types of geothermal processing used in the energy conversion systems, flash-binary geothermal can be the best scenario for high-temperature geothermal sources. Reviewing the available literature it can be found that the flash-binary geothermal power plants have a great potential to be extended to trigeneration systems, nonetheless they have received less attention. In this regard, a new trigeneration system for freshwater, power, and cooling production is devised using a flash-binary geothermal heat source at 170°C. In this devised trigeneration system, a humidification-dehumidification (HDH) unit is used as a binary cycle. Another merit of the devised trigeneration system is... 

The Iranian government has set a target of a 20% share of non-fossil fuel electricity generation by 2030, whose main result is reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions (about 182 million tonnes in 2017) to achieve the targets pledged under the Paris Climate Accord. So, this paper presents a comprehensive model on the expansion of non-fossil technology to evaluate the impact of increasing their share in Iran’s electricity supply system. This analytical approach is based on system dynamics (SD) that was developed based on dynamic behavior of electricity market, with an emphasis on the expansion of non-fossil fuels (solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, expansion turbines, and hydro power) in the... 

In this research, nonlinear sliding mode pitch control of a wind turbine has been investigated by considering aerodynamic nonlinearities. For modeling aerodynamic interaction between the wind and the drive-train system, blade element momentum theory is used by considering Prandtl's tip loss factor and Glaurt correction. Finally, the two-degrees of freedom model of the drive-train is extracted and the sliding mode approach is examined for regulating the output power into its nominal value by controlling the pitch angle. The implementation of the above proposed control law in its related electronic circuit of the wind turbine will be considered as the future stage of the current research. ©... 

In this paper, a systematic investigation and modeling of all available technologies (such as NGL, injection in pipelines, LNG, GTL, NGH, and CNG plants, EOR, electricity production by thermal power plants, and water generation by MED technologies) for flare gas recovery has been developed. An optimal combination of the technologies has been proposed for flare gas recovery of five oil wells in the south of Iran with different specifications as case studies. The optimal combinations of all the technologies have been investigated with minimizing the payback period of capital costs (economical) and maximizing CO2 pollutant reduction (environmental) objective functions by using the genetic...