Method of controlling a rotor of a wind turbine to deal with the risk of blade icing
AssigneeVestas Wind Systems A/S
InventorsInes Pinto Frutuoso, Johnny Nielsen, Fabio Caponetti
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Abstract
A first aspect of the invention provides a method of controlling a rotor of a wind turbine, the method comprising: obtaining a determination of whether there is ice on the rotor; obtaining one or more factors; generating an ice likelihood based on the obtained one or more factors, wherein the ice likelihood is indicative of whether it is likely that ice is building up on the rotor or thawing on the rotor; generating a confidence level based on the determination and the ice likelihood, wherein the confidence level provides an indication of the confidence that the determination is true; and controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level.
Claims18
A method of controlling a rotor of a wind turbine, the method comprising:
- obtaining a determination of whether there is ice on the rotor;
- obtaining one or more factors;
- generating an ice likelihood based on the obtained one or more factors, wherein the ice likelihood is indicative of whether it is likely that ice is building up on the rotor or thawing on the rotor;
- generating a confidence level based on the determination and the ice likelihood, wherein the confidence level provides an indication of the confidence that the determination is true;
- and
- controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level to modify operation of the wind turbine, wherein controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level comprises altering a pitch angle of a blade of the rotor.
A wind turbine, comprising:
- a tower;
- a nacelle disposed on the tower;
- a rotor extending from the nacelle and having a plurality of blades disposed on a distal end thereof;
- and
- a controller configured to perform an operation, comprising:
- obtaining a determination of whether there is ice on the rotor;
- obtaining one or more factors;
- generating an ice likelihood based on the obtained one or more factors, wherein the ice likelihood is indicative of whether it is likely that ice is building up on the rotor or thawing on the rotor;
- generating a confidence level based on the determination and the ice likelihood, wherein the confidence level provides an indication of the confidence that the determination is true;
- and
- controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level to modify operation of the wind turbine, wherein controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level comprises altering a pitch angle of a blade of the rotor.
A computer program product comprising a non-transitory memory storing software code which, when executed on a data processing system, performs an operation, comprising:
- obtaining a determination of whether there is ice on a rotor of a wind turbine;
- obtaining one or more factors;
- generating an ice likelihood based on the obtained one or more factors, wherein the ice likelihood is indicative of whether it is likely that ice is building up on the rotor or thawing on the rotor;
- generating a confidence level based on the determination and the ice likelihood, wherein the confidence level provides an indication of the confidence that the determination is true;
- and
- controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level to modify operation of the wind turbine, wherein controlling the wind turbine based on the confidence level comprises altering a pitch angle of a blade of the rotor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.