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M.J. Gałka

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Master thesis (2026) - M.J. Gałka, S.P. Mulders, J.I.S. Hummel, S. Shi
As wind turbines grow in size to meet global clean energy goals, managing structural loads becomes increasingly important for improving longevity and cost-effectiveness. Individual Pitch Control (IPC), which adjusts each blade’s angle to counteract aerodynamic forces, is a key method for reducing these loads.

The industry-standard Multi-Blade Coordinate (MBC) method demodulates cyclic load signals from each blade into static signals in a non-rotating frame, then controls the blades in tandem based on these static signals. While widely adopted, MBC’s inherently coupled control may limit performance as turbines increase in size. Larger rotors face greater spatial and temporal wind speed variations and blade flexibility, which could make locally acting strategies more attractive.

An alternative approach, Single Blade Control (SBC), regulates each blade independently in a rotating reference frame. By addressing disturbances locally, SBC could potentially reduce pitch actuation effort and extend component life while maintaining similar load reduction performance.

This research compares MBC and SBC through theoretical analysis and simulations, focusing on the trade-off between load reduction and actuation effort, as well as pitch miscalibration effect. The simulation results show that MBC-IPC offers more effective load reduction relative to pitch actuation effort in the majority of the considered operating conditions. However, SBC-IPC remains robust in the presence of pitch miscalibration and tends to achieve better performance in such scenarios.
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