A novel control architecture for floating wind turbines

Journal article (2023)

Authors

A.R.M. Hegazy Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
P. Naaijen Ship Hydromechanics and Structures - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
J.W. van Wingerden Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Negative damping Fixed-structure control H control Floating wind turbines Multivariable control
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Published Date

2023

Language

English

Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Delft Center for Systems and Control

Research Group

Team Jan-Willem van Wingerden

Abstract

The control of Floating Wind Turbines (FWTs) is challenging, as they possess much lower natural frequencies related to the structure's rigid body motion, which creates an undesirable coupling between tower motion and the blade pitch control. As a result, the tower motion is negatively damped triggering instability. This is because of the presence of Right Half Plane Zeros (RHPZs) imposing fundamental limitation on the control bandwidth. To address this problem, different solutions were proposed with varying control structures ranging from Single-Input, Single-Output (SISO) controllers to Multiple-input, Multiple-output (MIMO) ones. In this paper, a new control structure, of Single-Input, Multiple-Output (SIMO) is proposed that is able to lift the bandwidth limitation, while using simple elements that match the industry demands.