On the Control of Downstream Wind Turbines using the Helix Approach

Abstract

The placement of wind turbines in wind farms is economically beneficial to the industry. Consequently, the wake generated by the upstream turbines introduces interactions with downstream turbines that significantly affect power generation. However, it is common practice to control the individual turbines to operate at their optimal settings and neglect the wake effect. Turbines in a wake experience lower wind speeds and an increase in turbulence. This results in lower power generation and increased fatigue loads on the downstream turbine. Wind farm control aims to increase overall power generation and reduce fatigue loads by considering all turbines in the wind farm.
Recently, numerous studies have been conducted to control the wake itself. The helix approach is one such strategy and seeks to initiate better mixing of the wake. For this, it uses IPC to create sinusoidal blade bending moments acting on the rotor disc. This in turn creates a helical structure in the velocity of the wind, allowing it to better mix with the surrounding energy-rich wind. As a result, the waked downstream turbine experiences an increase in power due to the reduced velocity deficit in the wake. An extensive load analysis of the helix method has shown that the rotational frequency of this helical wake can be measured in the bending moments of the waked downstream turbine. To further develop the field of dynamic wake mixing, this work investigated the initialization of the helix method in a downstream turbine by amplifying these signals through synchronization with the incoming helical wake.
This method was tested in simulation environments with increasing levels of fidelity and number of turbines simulated. The results with low fidelity showed that synchronization could be achieved without loss of performance. In addition, less pitch actuation was required to generate large bending moments due to amplification. The final experiment was conducted for a three-turbine setup and was performed in a high-fidelity model using CFD methods. Here it was found that -90 degrees out-of-phase synchronization with the incoming helical wake resulted in a 9.8% increase in power generation in a turbine further downstream. These results demonstrate the clear potential of wake synchronization in a multi-turbine setting. This study, therefore, contributes to the field of dynamic wake mixing by introducing a novel field of wake synchronization.