Wind turbine generator acceleration control
AssigneeUnited Technologies Corporation
InventorKermit I. Harner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A power generating system includes a wind turbine driven generator, the wind turbine having a wind turbine driven rotor with a variable pitch angle blade. Stresses on the system during startup and shutdown are minimized by scheduling the blade angle as a function of the rotor speed and wind velocity to provide a minimum blade angle relative to the fully powered blade angle during rotor acceleration, and to provide a minimum blade angle relative to the fully powered blade angle during rotor deceleration.
Claims6
In a power generating system including a wind turbine driven source of energy, said wind turbine having a wind driven rotor with a plurality of variable pitch blades, a control for minimizing mechanical stresses in said system during rapid angular momentum changes of said rotor such as during startup and shutdown comprising:
- means for sensing a rotational speed of said system and producing a first signal indicative thereof,
- means for sensing the velocity of the wind driving said rotor and producing a second signal indicative thereof,
- scheduling means receiving said first and second signals and producing as a function thereof a desired blade pitch angle signal,
- and blade pitch angle control means receiving said desired blade pitch angle signal and responsive thereto for regulating the pitch angle of said rotor blades.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.