Concurrent aero-servo-elastic analysis and design of wind turbines

A new platform of competence is established between AAU and DTU on aero-servo-elasticity of wind turbines, which describes the interaction of the flow, servo actions by the controller, and elastic vibrations.  Our efforts are aimed at reducing the cost of wind energy by developing the model basis and methods for integrated design of turbine structures, aerodynamics, and controllers in a concurrent aero-servo-elastic system approach. We have developed a new tool for generation of first-principle linear models with various complexities. We have been able to map out the structural and aerodynamic phenomena that must be included in these models for capturing the open-loop dynamics of a turbine and enable the design and tuning of robust controllers with improved performances. We have shown that PID controllers perform comparable to modern model-based controllers; however, our new developments within modeling and knowledge about aero-servo-elasticity of turbines have the perspective to be able to exploit the advantages of these advanced controllers in terms design for both robust, performance, and adaptivity in a concurrent design process.