the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Output-constrained individual pitch control methods using the multiblade coordinate transformation: Trading off actuation effort and blade fatigue load reduction for wind turbines
Abstract. Individual pitch control (IPC) has been thoroughly researched for its ability to reduce wind turbine blade and tower fatigue loads. Conventional IPC often uses the multiblade coordinate (MBC) transformation and aims for full attenuation of the oscillating loads. However, this also leads to high control effort and increased fatigue damage on the pitch system. Output-constrained IPC uses the minimum actuator effort to drive loads to some reference value instead of fully attenuating them, achieving a trade-off between load reduction and actuator effort. To date, no control method exists that achieves output-constrained IPC using the conventional MBC approach. Furthermore, while multiple constrained IPC approaches have been proposed and analyzed, none of them analyze the full range of operating points between ‘no IPC’ and ‘full IPC. This paper presents two output-constrained IPC methods that use the MBC transformation. The first method, ℓ∞-IPC, independently drives the tilt and yaw moment to a tilt and yaw reference, while the second method, ℓ2-IPC, directly targets the magnitude of the combined tilt and yaw load. We furthermore analyze all operating points between no IPC and full IPC. OpenFAST simulations of the IEA 15 MW turbine were run at a wind speed of 15 m/s. In laminar conditions, ℓ2-IPC is more efficient because it reduces the magnitude of the load directly, while ℓ∞-IPC also uses control effort to change the phase of the blade load in the direction of the load references. To assess the performance in realistic wind conditions, results are averaged over multiple turbulent wind seeds. Both ℓ∞-IPC and ℓ2-IPC have a similar performance and the operating points between no IPC and full IPC form a nonlinear trade-off. One of the operating points in this trade-off achieves a 50 % load reduction, measured in damage equivalent load, with just 16.4 % of the actuator effort, measured in actuator duty cycle, compared to conventional IPC with the same integrator gain. This shows the potential of output-constrained IPC to facilitate a superior trade-off between load reduction and actuator effort.
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Status: closed
- RC1: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Anonymous Referee #1, 14 Feb 2025
-
RC2: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Feb 2025
This paper proposes two MBC-based IPC techniques to achieve a trade-off between DEL reduction and pitch actuation by using a reference tracking IPC based on the estimation of original (non-IPC) blade loads. The l-infinity method uses individual controllers to mitigate tilt and yaw axes loads separately, whereas the l-squared technique projects the magnitude of the blade loads on to the radial axis and uses a single controller to reduce blade loads. The two controllers are compared against a baseline at 15 m/s for laminar and turbulent flows, varying reference loads and varying horizontal and vertical shear.
Overall, this is a thorough and well-written paper that makes a worthy contribution to wind turbine control research. The paper is structured well and easy to follow along. Below are some suggestions that may further improve the quality of the paper.
- The paper provides a sufficient literature review of input-constrained, output-constrained and fatigue-constrained IPC techniques. It also clearly differentiates the proposed work from the literature. Further, it quantifies the performance of the proposed controllers. However, it is difficult to place the performance of the proposed control techniques with respect to one in the literature review. Providing the key metrics from past research that can be comparable to the proposed techniques will help place performance in perspective.
- It would help to comment on the robustness of the proposed techniques. Especially, the robustness of the original load estimator to varying turbulence intensity, varying wind speed and varying wind shear. In particular, is the Jacobian in equation 15 dependent on wind speed or collective blade pitch angle? What would be the required procedure if the controller is to be designed for the entire full-load operating region as opposed to a single wind speed. Does higher wind turbulence than what was tested affect the performance of the original load estimator and the reference sign/angle output? While horizontal and vertical wind shear is varied, it is not clear if low overall wind shear is tested. In particular, is equation 14 stable when the original tilt and yaw moments are non-zero but small.
Minor comments:
- Line 78: Unclear what the difference between pitch actuation and actuator activity is
- Lines 126-129: the mapping of nP harmonics is confusing, please elaborate on this.
- Line 138: The M_b being bold is confusing as M_b is a scalar component of M_R (line 144)
- Line 155: denotes pitch angles in non-rotating frame sound repetitive within the sentence.
- Line 164: Please confirm the T^-1 transform is correct with all cosines.
- Line 216: subscript is omitted can be mentioned earlier?
- In Fig 5: Clarify what the bands in the legend or the figure description, this is clarified to be one std dev. much later in the text.
- Line 283: For this to be true the units in Fig. 5 should be MNm?
- Line 286: Comment on why the DEL increases with higher bandwidth?
- Line 345: radial axis* ?
- Line 462: There are two single-line paragraphs here.
- Line 481: The diminishing slope is hard to see, maybe mention or provide a zoomed overlay in Fig. 14
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-153-RC2 - AC1: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Jesse Hummel, 25 Apr 2025
Status: closed
- RC1: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Anonymous Referee #1, 14 Feb 2025
-
RC2: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Feb 2025
This paper proposes two MBC-based IPC techniques to achieve a trade-off between DEL reduction and pitch actuation by using a reference tracking IPC based on the estimation of original (non-IPC) blade loads. The l-infinity method uses individual controllers to mitigate tilt and yaw axes loads separately, whereas the l-squared technique projects the magnitude of the blade loads on to the radial axis and uses a single controller to reduce blade loads. The two controllers are compared against a baseline at 15 m/s for laminar and turbulent flows, varying reference loads and varying horizontal and vertical shear.
Overall, this is a thorough and well-written paper that makes a worthy contribution to wind turbine control research. The paper is structured well and easy to follow along. Below are some suggestions that may further improve the quality of the paper.
- The paper provides a sufficient literature review of input-constrained, output-constrained and fatigue-constrained IPC techniques. It also clearly differentiates the proposed work from the literature. Further, it quantifies the performance of the proposed controllers. However, it is difficult to place the performance of the proposed control techniques with respect to one in the literature review. Providing the key metrics from past research that can be comparable to the proposed techniques will help place performance in perspective.
- It would help to comment on the robustness of the proposed techniques. Especially, the robustness of the original load estimator to varying turbulence intensity, varying wind speed and varying wind shear. In particular, is the Jacobian in equation 15 dependent on wind speed or collective blade pitch angle? What would be the required procedure if the controller is to be designed for the entire full-load operating region as opposed to a single wind speed. Does higher wind turbulence than what was tested affect the performance of the original load estimator and the reference sign/angle output? While horizontal and vertical wind shear is varied, it is not clear if low overall wind shear is tested. In particular, is equation 14 stable when the original tilt and yaw moments are non-zero but small.
Minor comments:
- Line 78: Unclear what the difference between pitch actuation and actuator activity is
- Lines 126-129: the mapping of nP harmonics is confusing, please elaborate on this.
- Line 138: The M_b being bold is confusing as M_b is a scalar component of M_R (line 144)
- Line 155: denotes pitch angles in non-rotating frame sound repetitive within the sentence.
- Line 164: Please confirm the T^-1 transform is correct with all cosines.
- Line 216: subscript is omitted can be mentioned earlier?
- In Fig 5: Clarify what the bands in the legend or the figure description, this is clarified to be one std dev. much later in the text.
- Line 283: For this to be true the units in Fig. 5 should be MNm?
- Line 286: Comment on why the DEL increases with higher bandwidth?
- Line 345: radial axis* ?
- Line 462: There are two single-line paragraphs here.
- Line 481: The diminishing slope is hard to see, maybe mention or provide a zoomed overlay in Fig. 14
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-153-RC2 - AC1: 'Comment on wes-2024-153', Jesse Hummel, 25 Apr 2025
Data sets
Code and dataset to analyze output-constrained IPC methods ℓ2-IPC and ℓ∞-IPC J. I. S. Hummel, J. Kober, and S. P. Mulders https://doi.org/10.4121/372325a3-306e-4578-9c72-4fcda690a999
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