Vibration damping system and method for variable speed wind turbines
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsShashikanth Suryanarayanan, Aaron Avagliano, Corneliu Barbu
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Abstract
A vibration damping technique for a wind turbine system is described. The wind turbine system includes a vibration damper, which provides a variable signal to control torque produced by a generator of the wind turbine system. The variable signal is based on generator speed and has a first local peak value based on a resonant frequency of tower side-to-side oscillation.
Claims29
A vibration damping system for a wind turbine system mounted on a tower, the vibration damping system comprising:
- a vibration damper operable to provide a variable signal to control torque produced by a generator of the wind turbine system, wherein the variable signal is based on generator speed and has a first local peak value based on a resonant frequency of tower side-to-side oscillation.
A vibration damping system for a wind turbine system having a generator mounted on a tower, the vibration damping system comprising:
- a vibration damper operable to identify a vibration frequency based on changes in generator rotor speed and to provide a signal to modulate the generator torque based on the vibration frequency, wherein the signal has a peak value at a vibration frequency corresponding to a resonant frequency of tower side-to-side oscillation and a lesser value relative to the first peak value at a generator rotor frequency corresponding to a blade pass frequency.
A vibration damping method for a wind turbine with a turbine rotor mounted on a tower and coupled to a generator rotor by a drive train, the vibration damping method comprising:
- determining a generator demand torque based on sensed rotational speed of the generator;
- modulating the generator demand torque by providing a signal based on changes in generator rotor speed, wherein the signal has a first peak value based on a tower side-to-side resonant frequency, and a second peak value based on a drive train resonant frequency.
A vibration damping method for a wind turbine having a turbine rotor mounted on a tower and coupled to a generator rotor by a drive train, the vibration damping method comprising:
- computing a resonant frequency of drive train vibration and a resonant frequency of tower side-to-side oscillations based on changes in generator rotor speed;
- and
- controlling the torque produced by the generator via a signal based on changes in generator rotor speed, wherein the signal has a first peak value based on the computed resonant frequency of tower side oscillations, a lower value relative to the first peak value at a generator rotor frequency corresponding a blade pass frequency, and a second peak value based on the computed resonant frequency of drive train vibration.
A computer readable media, comprising:
- code adapted receive an input indicative of speed of a generator, and to compute a response for controlling torque produced by the generator based on the input indicative of the speed of the generator, wherein the response has a first peak value based on a tower side-to-side resonant frequency, a lower value relative to the first peak value at a rotor frequency of the generator corresponding to a blade pass frequency, and a second peak value based on a drive train resonant frequency.
A wind turbine system, comprising:
- a turbine rotor;
- a generator disposed on a tower;
- a drive train coupling the turbine rotor to the generator;
- a sensor operable to provide a signal representative of generator rotor speed;
- and
- a resonant frequency detection system coupled to the sensor and operable to identify a resonant frequency of a component of the wind turbine system based on changes in the signal representative of generator rotor speed;
- a vibration dampening system coupled to the sensor and the resonant frequency detection system, wherein the vibration dampening system is operable to identify a vibration frequency based on changes in the signal representative of generator rotor speed and to provide a generator vibration damping signal to reduce vibration in the wind turbine system that varies as a function of the vibration frequency, and
- wherein the vibration dampening system is adapted to provide a generator vibration damping signal having a specific value based on the resonant frequency of the component of the wind turbine system identified by the resonant frequency detection system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.