Distributed Control System
AssigneeFrontier Wind, LLC
InventorJonathon P. Baker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for pressure based load measurement are provided. The system and method measure at least one pressure differential on an airfoil and determine at least one aerodynamic load associated with the at least one pressure differential. The determined at least one load is used to modify characteristics of the airfoil to increase efficiency and/or avoid damage. The determined at least one aerodynamic load may be further utilized to balance and/or optimize loads at the airfoil, estimate a load distribution along the airfoil used to derive other metrics about the airfoil, and/or used in a distributed control system to increase efficiency and/or reduce damage to, e.g., one or more wind turbines.
Claims20
A wind turbine comprising:
- a hub;
- a plurality of wind turbine blades connected to and arranged about the hub;
- and
- a plurality of controllers, wherein a first controller of the plurality of controllers is configured to modify a first characteristic of at least one wind turbine blade of the plurality of wind turbine blades, and wherein a second controller of the plurality of controllers is configured to modify the first characteristic of the at least one wind turbine blade.
A method for controlling wind turbines, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a controller at a first wind turbine by a controller at a second wind turbine, an estimated aerodynamic load associated with a blade at the first wind turbine, wherein the controller at the first wind turbine estimates the aerodynamic load associated with the blade at the first wind turbine based on a determined pressure differential between a first pressure location and a second pressure location on the blade at the first wind turbine;
- and
- in response to receiving the estimated aerodynamic load associated with the blade at the first wind turbine, modifying, by the controller at the second wind turbine, a characteristic of the second wind turbine.
A system for controlling wind turbines, the system comprising:
- a plurality of wind turbines arranged in a plurality of groups;
- and
- a controller at each of the plurality of wind turbines, wherein each controller is configured to modify at least one characteristic of a corresponding wind turbine, wherein the system is configured to:
- estimate an aerodynamic load associated with a blade of a first wind turbine of the plurality of wind turbines in a first group of the plurality of groups based on a determined pressure differential between a first pressure location and second pressure location on the blade of the first wind turbine;
- and
- in response to the estimating the aerodynamic load associated with the blade of the first wind turbine, modify, by the controller at each wind turbine in the first group, a characteristic of each wind turbine in the first group.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.