Aeroelastic stability analysis of a Darrieus wind turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popelka, D.

1982-02-01

An aeroelastic stability analysis has been developed for predicting flutter instabilities on vertical axis wind turbines. The analytical model and mathematical formulation of the problem are described as well as the physical mechanism that creates flutter in Darrieus turbines. Theoretical results are compared with measured experimental data from flutter tests of the Sandia 2 Meter turbine. Based on this comparison, the analysis appears to be an adequate design evaluation tool.

Sandia National Laboratories

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — For more than 60 years, Sandia has delivered essential science and technology to resolve the nation's most challenging security issues.Sandia National Laboratories...

Vertical axis wind turbine power regulation through centrifugally pumped lift spoiling

Science.gov (United States)

Klimas, P. C.; Sladky, J. F., Jr.

This paper describes an approach for lowering the rated windspeeds of Darrieus-type vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) whose blades are hollow aluminum extrusions. The blades, which when rotating act as centrifugal pumps, are fitted with a series of small perforations distributed along a portion of the blades' span. By valving the ends of the hollow blades, flow into the blade ends and out of the perforations may be controlled. This flow can induce premature aerodynamic stall on the blade elements, thereby reducing both the rated power of the turbine and its cost-of-energy. The concept has been proven on the Sandia National Laboratories 5-m diameter research VAWT and force balance and flow visualization wind tunnel tests have been conducted using a blade section designed for the VAWT application.

Twistact techno-economic analysis for wind turbine applications.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naughton, Brian Thomas [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Koplow, Jeffrey P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Vanness, Justin William [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Sethuraman, Latha [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Maness, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Dykes, Katherine [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-01

This report is the final deliverable for a techno-economic analysis of the Sandia National Laboratories-developed Twistact rotary electrical conductor. The U.S. Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office supported a team of researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to evaluate the potential of the Twistact technology to serve as a viable replacement to rare-earth materials used in permanent-magnet direct-drive wind turbine generators. This report compares three detailed generator models, two as baseline technologies and a third incorporating the Twistact technology. These models are then used to calculate the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for three comparable offshore wind plants using the three generator topologies. The National Renewable Energy Laboratorys techno-economic analysis indicates that Twistact technology can be used to design low-maintenance, brush-free, and wire-wound (instead of rare-earth-element (REE) permanent-magnet), direct-drive wind turbine generators without a significant change in LCOE and generation efficiency. Twistact technology acts as a hedge against sources of uncertain costs for direct-drive generators. On the one hand, for permanent-magnet direct-drive (PMDD) generators, the long-term price of REEs may increase due to increases in future demand, from electric vehicles and other technologies, whereas the supply remains limited and geographically concentrated. The potential higher prices in the future adversely affect the cost competitiveness of PMDD generators and may thwart industry investment in the development of the technology for wind turbine applications. Twistact technology can eliminate industry risk around the uncertainty of REE price and availability. Traditional wire-wound direct-drive generators experience reliability issues and higher maintenance costs because of the wear on the contact brushes necessary for field excitation. The brushes experience

Sandia National Laboratories

Science.gov (United States)

Gilliom, Laura R.

1992-01-01

Sandia National Laboratories has identified technology transfer to U.S. industry as a laboratory mission which complements our national security mission and as a key component of the Laboratory's future. A number of technology transfer mechanisms - such as CRADA's, licenses, work-for-others, and consortia - are identified and specific examples are given. Sandia's experience with the Specialty Metals Processing Consortium is highlighted with a focus on the elements which have made it successful. A brief discussion of Sandia's potential interactions with NASA under the Space Exploration Initiative was included as an example of laboratory-to-NASA technology transfer. Viewgraphs are provided.

Noise immission from wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The project has dealt with practical ways to reduce the influence of background noise caused by wind acting on the measuring microphones. The uncertainty of measured noise emission (source strength) has been investigated. The main activity was a Round Robin Test involving measurements by five laboratories at the same wind turbine. Each laboratory brought its own instrumentation and performed the measurements and analyses according to their interpretation. The tonality of wind turbine noise is an essential component of the noise impact on the environment. In the present project the uncertainty in the newest existing methods for assessing tonality was investigated. The project included noise propagation measurements in different weather conditions around wind turbines situated in different types of terrain. The results were used to validate a noise propagation model developed in the project. Finally, the project also included a study with listeners evaluating recordings of wind turbine noise. The results are intended as guidance for wind turbine manufacturers in identifying the aspects of wind turbine noise most important to annoyance. (author)

National Renewable Energy Laboratory program on lightning risk and wind turbine generator protection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muljadi, E. [National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States); McNiff, B. [McNiff Light Industry, Blue Hill, ME (United States)

1997-12-31

In the early development of wind turbine generators (WTG) in the United States, wind farms were primarily located in California where lightning activity is the lowest in the United States. As such, lightning protection for wind turbines was not considered to be a major issue for designers or wind farm operators. However, wind turbine installations are expanding into the Midwest, Southwest and other regions of the United States where lightning activity is significantly more intense and lightning damage to wind turbines is more common. There is a growing need, therefore, to better understand lightning activity on wind farms and to improve wind turbine lightning protection systems. In support of the U.S. Department of Energy/Electric Power Research Institute (DOE/EPRI) Utility Wind Turbine Verification Program (TVP), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has recently begun to take steps to determine the extent of damage due to lightning and the effectiveness of various lightning protection techniques for wind power plants. Working through the TVP program, NREL will also perform outreach and education to (1) help manufacturers to provide equipment that is adequately designed to survive lightning, (2) make sure that operators are aware of effective safety procedures, and (3) help site designers and wind farm developers take the risk of lightning into account as effectively as possible.

Concepts for Reusing Composite Materials from Decommissioned Wind Turbine Blades in Affordable Housing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lawrence C. Bank

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The very rapid growth in wind energy technology in the last 15 years has led to a rapid growth in the amount of non-biodegradable, thermosetting fiber reinforced polymer (FRP composite materials used in wind turbine blades. This paper discusses conceptual architectural and structural options for recycling these blades by reusing parts of wind turbine blades in new or retrofitted housing projects. It focuses on large-sized FRP pieces that can be salvaged from the turbine blades and can potentially be useful in infrastructure projects where harsh environmental conditions (water and high humidity exist. Since reuse design should be for specific regional locations and architectural characteristics the designs presented in this paper are for the coastal regions of the Yucatan province in Mexico on the Gulf of Mexico where low-quality masonry block informal housing is vulnerable to severe hurricanes and flooding. To demonstrate the concept a prototype 100 m long wind blade model developed by Sandia National Laboratories is used to show how a wind blade can be broken down into parts, thus making it possible to envision architectural applications for the different wind blade segments for housing applications.

A study of rotor and platform design trade-offs for large-scale floating vertical axis wind turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Griffith, D. Todd; Paquette, Joshua; Barone, Matthew; Goupee, Andrew J.; Fowler, Matthew J.; Bull, Diana; Owens, Brian

2016-09-01

Vertical axis wind turbines are receiving significant attention for offshore siting. In general, offshore wind offers proximity to large populations centers, a vast & more consistent wind resource, and a scale-up opportunity, to name a few beneficial characteristics. On the other hand, offshore wind suffers from high levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and in particular high balance of system (BoS) costs owing to accessibility challenges and limited project experience. To address these challenges associated with offshore wind, Sandia National Laboratories is researching large-scale (MW class) offshore floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). The motivation for this work is that floating VAWTs are a potential transformative technology solution to reduce offshore wind LCOE in deep-water locations. This paper explores performance and cost trade-offs within the design space for floating VAWTs between the configurations for the rotor and platform.

Wind turbine wake interactions at field scale: An LES study of the SWiFT facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Xiaolei; Boomsma, Aaron; Sotiropoulos, Fotis; Barone, Matthew

2014-01-01

The University of Minnesota Virtual Wind Simulator (VWiS) code is employed to simulate turbine/atmosphere interactions in the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility developed by Sandia National Laboratories in Lubbock, TX, USA. The facility presently consists of three turbines and the simulations consider the case of wind blowing from South such that two turbines are in the free stream and the third turbine in the direct wake of one upstream turbine with separation of 5 rotor diameters. Large-eddy simulation (LES) on two successively finer grids is carried out to examine the sensitivity of the computed solutions to grid refinement. It is found that the details of the break-up of the tip vortices into small-scale turbulence structures can only be resolved on the finer grid. It is also shown that the power coefficient C P of the downwind turbine predicted on the coarse grid is somewhat higher than that obtained on the fine mesh. On the other hand, the rms (root-mean-square) of the C P fluctuations are nearly the same on both grids, although more small-scale turbulence structures are resolved upwind of the downwind turbine on the finer grid

3D-PTV around Operational Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Brownstein, Ian; Dabiri, John

2016-11-01

Laboratory studies and numerical simulations of wind turbines are typically constrained in how they can inform operational turbine behavior. Laboratory experiments are usually unable to match both pertinent parameters of full-scale wind turbines, the Reynolds number (Re) and tip speed ratio, using scaled-down models. Additionally, numerical simulations of the flow around wind turbines are constrained by the large domain size and high Re that need to be simulated. When these simulations are preformed, turbine geometry is typically simplified resulting in flow structures near the rotor not being well resolved. In order to bypass these limitations, a quantitative flow visualization method was developed to take in situ measurements of the flow around wind turbines at the Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy (FLOWE) in Lancaster, CA. The apparatus constructed was able to seed an approximately 9m x 9m x 5m volume in the wake of the turbine using artificial snow. Quantitative measurements were obtained by tracking the evolution of the artificial snow using a four camera setup. The methodology for calibrating and collecting data, as well as preliminary results detailing the flow around a 2kW vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT), will be presented.

High-fidelity Modeling of Local Effects of Damage for Derated Offshore Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Phillip W.; Griffith, D. Todd; Hodges, Dewey H.

2014-06-01

Offshore wind power production is an attractive clean energy option, but the difficulty of access can lead to expensive and rare opportunities for maintenance. As part of the Structural Health and Prognostics Management (SHPM) project at Sandia National Laboratories, smart loads management (controls) are investigated for their potential to increase the fatigue life of offshore wind turbine rotor blades. Derating refers to altering the rotor angular speed and blade pitch to limit power production and loads on the rotor blades. High- fidelity analysis techniques like 3D finite element modeling (FEM) should be used alongside beam models of wind turbine blades to characterize these control strategies in terms of their effect to mitigate fatigue damage and extend life of turbine blades. This study will consider a commonly encountered damage type for wind turbine blades, the trailing edge disbond, and show how FEM can be used to quantify the effect of operations and control strategies designed to extend the fatigue life of damaged blades. The Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) will be used to post-process the displacement and stress results to provide estimates of damage severity/criticality and provide a means to estimate the fatigue life under a given operations and control strategy.

High-fidelity Modeling of Local Effects of Damage for Derated Offshore Wind Turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richards, Phillip W; Griffith, D Todd; Hodges, Dewey H

2014-01-01

Offshore wind power production is an attractive clean energy option, but the difficulty of access can lead to expensive and rare opportunities for maintenance. As part of the Structural Health and Prognostics Management (SHPM) project at Sandia National Laboratories, smart loads management (controls) are investigated for their potential to increase the fatigue life of offshore wind turbine rotor blades. Derating refers to altering the rotor angular speed and blade pitch to limit power production and loads on the rotor blades. High- fidelity analysis techniques like 3D finite element modeling (FEM) should be used alongside beam models of wind turbine blades to characterize these control strategies in terms of their effect to mitigate fatigue damage and extend life of turbine blades. This study will consider a commonly encountered damage type for wind turbine blades, the trailing edge disbond, and show how FEM can be used to quantify the effect of operations and control strategies designed to extend the fatigue life of damaged blades. The Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) will be used to post-process the displacement and stress results to provide estimates of damage severity/criticality and provide a means to estimate the fatigue life under a given operations and control strategy

An Immersed Boundary - Adaptive Mesh Refinement solver (IB-AMR) for high fidelity fully resolved wind turbine simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Angelidis, Dionysios; Sotiropoulos, Fotis

2015-11-01

The geometrical details of wind turbines determine the structure of the turbulence in the near and far wake and should be taken in account when performing high fidelity calculations. Multi-resolution simulations coupled with an immersed boundary method constitutes a powerful framework for high-fidelity calculations past wind farms located over complex terrains. We develop a 3D Immersed-Boundary Adaptive Mesh Refinement flow solver (IB-AMR) which enables turbine-resolving LES of wind turbines. The idea of using a hybrid staggered/non-staggered grid layout adopted in the Curvilinear Immersed Boundary Method (CURVIB) has been successfully incorporated on unstructured meshes and the fractional step method has been employed. The overall performance and robustness of the second order accurate, parallel, unstructured solver is evaluated by comparing the numerical simulations against conforming grid calculations and experimental measurements of laminar and turbulent flows over complex geometries. We also present turbine-resolving multi-scale LES considering all the details affecting the induced flow field; including the geometry of the tower, the nacelle and especially the rotor blades of a wind tunnel scale turbine. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy under Award Number DE-EE0005482 and the Sandia National Laboratories.

Wake characteristics of wind turbines in utility-scale wind farms

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xiaolei; Foti, Daniel; Sotiropoulos, Fotis

2017-11-01

The dynamics of turbine wakes is affected by turbine operating conditions, ambient atmospheric turbulent flows, and wakes from upwind turbines. Investigations of the wake from a single turbine have been extensively carried out in the literature. Studies on the wake dynamics in utility-scale wind farms are relatively limited. In this work, we employ large-eddy simulation with an actuator surface or actuator line model for turbine blades to investigate the wake dynamics in utility-scale wind farms. Simulations of three wind farms, i.e., the Horns Rev wind farm in Denmark, Pleasant Valley wind farm in Minnesota, and the Vantage wind farm in Washington are carried out. The computed power shows a good agreement with measurements. Analysis of the wake dynamics in the three wind farms is underway and will be presented in the conference. This work was support by Xcel Energy (RD4-13). The computational resources were provided by National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Charter of the Sandia National Laboratories Sandia Postdoctoral Development (SPD) Association.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McBride, Amber Alane Fisher; McBride, Amber Alane Fisher; Rodgers, Theron; Dong, Wen; Juan, Pierre-Alexandre; Barkholtz, Heather; Alley, William Morgan; Wolk, Benjamin Matthew; Vane, Zachary Phillips; Priye, Aashish; Ball, Cameron Scott; McBride, Amber Alane Fisher

2017-03-01

The SNL SPD Association represents all personnel that are classified as Postdoctoral Appointees at Sandia National Laboratories. The purpose of the SNL SPD Association is to address the needs and concerns of Postdoctoral Appointees within Sandia National Laboratories.

Renewable energy technology development at Sandia National Laboratories

Science.gov (United States)

Klimas, P. C.

1994-02-01

The use of renewable energy technologies is typically thought of as an integral part of creating and sustaining an environment that maximizes the overall quality of life of the Earth's present inhabitants and does not leave an undue burden on future generations. Sandia National Laboratories has been a leader in developing many of these technologies over the last two decades. This paper describes innovative solar, wind and geothermal energy systems and components that Sandia is helping to bring to the marketplace. A common but special aspect of all of these activities is that they are conducted in partnership with non-federal government entities. A number of these partners are from New Mexico.

Urban small wind turbine applications for reducing GHC emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tullis, S.

2009-01-01

'Full text:' There are advantages to power generation at or near the points of consumption and this is still true for low carbon sustainable power sources, including wind. Consequently, there is interest in wind power generation in cities and suburbs. The potential now exists for realistic power small-scale generation in building mounted turbines. This presentation provides the benefits and obstacles to their use, as well as details of such turbines and the design and operations requirements for them. The main issues associated with locating turbines in cities and suburbs are: the highly turbulent, unsteady wind in the urban/suburban environment produces lower power outputs; vibration is a large concern on mounting turbines on buildings, and safety (turbine failure or even just ice shedding) with pedestrians below. Past and current thinking has just been straightforward in that it is not worth it, and the previous attempts at simply mounting small-scale turbines on rooftops has done more harm than good to the reputation of the small wind, and wind in general, industries. Recently there has been a reconsideration of urban small wind led by reputable companies such as Quiet Revolution (UK), Turby (NL) and Cleanfield (Canada) combined with academic research. A common feature of all of these companies is the use of vertical axis turbines (VAWTs) to help deal with the highly turbulent, unsteady urban winds. Large-scale VAWTs enjoyed a brief flurry of interest in the 1970s and 80s with large amounts of research done at Sandia and NRC in Canada. Vibration and fatigue in the large-scale turbines were among the issues that led to their decline. These, particularly vibration, remain issues for small-scale turbines, but there are some mitigating strategies available. These are now leading to the development of reputable, practical and reliable turbines that can become part of the urban/suburban environment. (author)

Sandia National Laboratories embraces ISDN

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tolendino, L.F.; Eldridge, J.M.

1994-08-01

Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), a multidisciplinary research and development laboratory located on Kirtland Air Force Base, has embraced Integrated Services Digital Network technology as an integral part of its communication network. Sandia and the Department of Energy`s Albuquerque Operations Office have recently completed the installation of a modernized and expanded telephone system based, on the AT&T 5ESS telephone switch. Sandia is committed to ISDN as an integral part of data communication services, and it views ISDN as one part of a continuum of services -- services that range from ISDN`s asynchronous and limited bandwidth Ethernet (250--1000 Kbps) through full bandwidth Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM at Sonet rates. Sandia has demonstrated this commitment through its use of ISDN data features to support critical progmmmatic services such as access to corporate data base systems. In the future, ISDN will provide enhanced voice, data communication, and video services.

Wind turbines, is it just wind?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boiteux, M.

2012-01-01

The author first outlines that wind energy is not only random, but almost absent in extreme situations when it would be needed (for example and notably, very cold weather without wind). He suggests the association of a gas turbine to each wind turbine, so that the gas turbine will replace non operating wind turbines. He notices that wind turbines are not proximity energy as they were said to be, and that profitability in fact requires tens of grouped giant wind turbines. He also outlines the high cost of construction of grids for the connection of these wind turbines. Thus, he states that wind energy is far from being profitable in the present conditions of electricity tariffs in France

Model improvements for evaluating the effect of tower tilting on the aerodynamics of a vertical axis wind turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, K.; Hansen, Martin Otto Laver; Moan, T.

2015-01-01

If a vertical axis wind turbine is mounted offshore on a semi-submersible, the pitch motion of the platform will dominate the static pitch and dynamic motion of the platform and wind turbine such that the effect of tower tilting on the aerodynamics of the vertical axis wind turbine should...... be investigated to more accurately predict the aerodynamic loads. This paper proposes certain modifications to the double multiple-streamtube (DMS) model to include the component of wind speed parallel to the rotating shaft. The model is validated against experimental data collected on an H-Darrieus wind turbine...... in skewed flow conditions. Three different dynamic stall models are also integrated into the DMS model: Gormont's model with the adaptation of Strickland, Gormont's model with the modification of Berg and the Beddoes-Leishman dynamic stall model. Both the small Sandia 17m wind turbine and the large DeepWind...

Energy - Sandia National Laboratories

Science.gov (United States)

Energy Energy Secure & Sustainable Energy Future Search Icon Sandia Home Locations Contact Us Employee Locator Menu Stationary Power solar Energy Conversion Efficiency Increasing the amount of electricity produced from a given thermal energy input. Solar Energy Wind Energy Water Power Supercritical CO2

International Symposium on Wind Energy Systems, Held at Cambridge University, on 7-9 September 1976

Science.gov (United States)

1976-12-07

Darrieus turbine design. B.F. Blackwell, Sandia Laboratories, USA. Some design aspects of high-speed vertical- axis wind turbines . R.J. Templin and P...Energy, Energy Conversion, Power Systems, Windmills, Wind Turbines . 20. §6PAT(Cin~hW. "" aid. it 00e096 suf id""App hr 6Řb nwe) This report of qs brief...large wind turbines ocerating in lare arrays, and the output (with and without storage) of several such arrwef awhen geographically dispersed, has yet to

Aerodynamic models for a Darrieus wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Fraunie, P.; Beguier, C.; Paraschivoiu, I.; Delclaux, F.

1982-11-01

Various models proposed for the aerodynamics of Darrieus wind turbines are reviewed. The magnitude of the L/D ratio for a Darrieus rotor blade is dependent on the profile, the Re, boundary layer characteristics, and the three-dimensional flow effects. The aerodynamic efficiency is theoretically the Betz limit, and the interference of one blade with another is constrained by the drag force integrated over all points on the actuator disk. A single streamtube model can predict the power available in a Darrieus, but the model lacks definition of the flow structure and the cyclic stresses. Techniques for calculating the velocity profiles and the consequent induced velocity at the blades are presented. The multiple streamtube theory has been devised to account for the repartition of the velocity in the rotor interior. The model has been expanded as the double multiple streamtube theory at Sandia Laboratories. Futher work is necessary, however, to include the effects of dynamic decoupling at high rotation speeds and to accurately describe blade behavior.

Wind Turbine Drivetrain Reliability Collaborative Workshop: A Recap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keller, Jonathan [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sheng, Shuangwen [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Cotrell, Jason [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Greco, Aaron [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2016-08-01

The Wind Turbine Drivetrain Reliability Collaborative Workshop was convened by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Argonne National Laboratory, and the U.S. Department of Energy to explore the state of the art in wind turbine drivetrain mechanical system reliability as well as research and development (R&D) challenges that if solved could have significant benefits. The workshop was held at the Research Support Facility on NREL's main campus in Golden, Colorado, from February 16-17, 2016. More than 120 attendees participated from industry, academia, and government. Plenary presentations covered wind turbine drivetrain design, testing, and analysis; tribology -- the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion -- and failure modes; and condition monitoring and data analytics. In addition to the presentations, workshops were held in each of these areas to discuss R&D challenges. This report serves as a summary of the presentations, workshops, and conclusions on R&D challenges in wind turbine drivetrain reliability.

Modern Control Design for Flexible Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wright, A. D.

2004-07-01

Control can improve energy capture and reduce dynamic loads in wind turbines. In the 1970s and 1980s, wind turbines used classical control designs to regulate power and speed. The methods used, however, were not always successful. Modern turbines are larger, mounted on taller towers, and more dynamically active than their predecessors. Control systems to regulate turbine power and maintain stable, closed-loop behavior in the presence of turbulent wind inflow will be critical for these designs. This report applies modern state-space control design methods to a two-bladed teetering hub upwind machine at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC), which is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. The design objective is to regulate turbine speed and enhance damping in several low-damped flexible modes of the turbine. Starting with simple control algorithms based on linear models, complexity is added incrementally until the desired performance is firmly established.

Reliability of wind turbine blades: An overview of materials testing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holmes, John W.; Sørensen, Bent F.; Brøndsted, Povl

2007-01-01

an understanding of how damage develops in composite structures, composite materials and adhesives. Designing reliable wind turbine blades also requires the further development of laboratory scale and full scale test methods to evaluate the structural response and durability of new materials under various loading......The structural reliability of wind turbine components can have a profound impact on both the profitability and reputation of a wind turbine manufacturer or supplier of wind turbine components. The issue of reliability is of critical concern when large wind farm co-operatives are considered......, and when wind turbines are located in remote regions where the cost of inspections and repairs can be very high. From a structural viewpoint, wind turbine blades are subjected to very complex loading histories with coupled deformation modes. The long-term reliability of wind turbine blades requires...

Sandia National Laboratories: The First Fifty Years

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

MORA,CARL J.

1999-11-03

On Nov. 1, 1999, Sandia National Laboratories celebrates its 50th birthday. Although Sandia has its roots in the World War II-era Manhattan Project, Sandia began operating as a separate nuclear weapons engineering laboratory under the management of AT&T on Nov. 1, 1949. Today the lab employs more than 7,000 people at its two sites in Albuquerque and Livermore, California, and has research and development missions in national security, energy and environmental technologies, and U.S. economic competitiveness. Lockheed Martin Corporation operates Sandia for the US. Department of Energy.

Large-Scale Uncertainty and Error Analysis for Time-dependent Fluid/Structure Interactions in Wind Turbine Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Alonso, Juan J. [Stanford University; Iaccarino, Gianluca [Stanford University

2013-08-25

The following is the final report covering the entire period of this aforementioned grant, June 1, 2011 - May 31, 2013 for the portion of the effort corresponding to Stanford University (SU). SU has partnered with Sandia National Laboratories (PI: Mike S. Eldred) and Purdue University (PI: Dongbin Xiu) to complete this research project and this final report includes those contributions made by the members of the team at Stanford. Dr. Eldred is continuing his contributions to this project under a no-cost extension and his contributions to the overall effort will be detailed at a later time (once his effort has concluded) on a separate project submitted by Sandia National Laboratories. At Stanford, the team is made up of Profs. Alonso, Iaccarino, and Duraisamy, post-doctoral researcher Vinod Lakshminarayan, and graduate student Santiago Padron. At Sandia National Laboratories, the team includes Michael Eldred, Matt Barone, John Jakeman, and Stefan Domino, and at Purdue University, we have Prof. Dongbin Xiu as our main collaborator. The overall objective of this project was to develop a novel, comprehensive methodology for uncertainty quantification by combining stochastic expansions (nonintrusive polynomial chaos and stochastic collocation), the adjoint approach, and fusion with experimental data to account for aleatory and epistemic uncertainties from random variable, random field, and model form sources. The expected outcomes of this activity were detailed in the proposal and are repeated here to set the stage for the results that we have generated during the time period of execution of this project: 1. The rigorous determination of an error budget comprising numerical errors in physical space and statistical errors in stochastic space and its use for optimal allocation of resources; 2. A considerable increase in efficiency when performing uncertainty quantification with a large number of uncertain variables in complex non-linear multi-physics problems; 3. A

User's manual for the vertical axis wind turbine performance computer code darter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Klimas, P. C.; French, R. E.

1980-05-01

The computer code DARTER (DARrieus, Turbine, Elemental Reynolds number) is an aerodynamic performance/loads prediction scheme based upon the conservation of momentum principle. It is the latest evolution in a sequence which began with a model developed by Templin of NRC, Canada and progressed through the Sandia National Laboratories-developed SIMOSS (SSImple MOmentum, Single Streamtube) and DART (SARrieus Turbine) to DARTER.

Aerodynamic Interactions between Pairs of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Brownstein, Ian; Dabiri, John

2017-11-01

Increased power production has been observed in downstream vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) when positioned offset from the wake of upstream turbines. This effect was found to exist in both laboratory and field environments with pairs of co- and counter-rotating turbines. It is hypothesized that the observed power production enhancement is due to flow acceleration adjacent to the upstream turbine caused by bluff body blockage, which increases the incident freestream velocity on appropriately positioned downstream turbines. This type of flow acceleration has been observed in computational and laboratory studies of VAWTs and will be further investigated here using 3D-PTV measurements around pairs of laboratory-scale VAWTs. These measurements will be used to understand the mechanisms behind the performance enhancement effect and seek to determine optimal separation distances and angles between turbines based on turbine design parameters. These results will lead to recommendations for optimizing the power production of VAWT wind farms which utilize this effect.

Assessment of wind turbine load measurement instrumentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morfiadakis, E; Papadopoulos, K [CRES (Greece); Borg, N van der [ECN, Petten (Netherlands); Petersen, S M [Risoe, Roskilde (Denmark); Seifert, H [DEWI, Wilhelmshaven (Germany)

1999-03-01

In the framework of Sub-Task3 `Wind turbine load measurement instrumentation` of EU-project `European Wind Turbine Testing Procedure Development`, the load measurement techniques have been assessed by laboratory, full scale and numerical tests. The existing methods have been reviewed with emphasis on the strain gage application techniques on composite materials and recommendations are provided for the optimisation of load measurement techniques. (au) EU. 14 refs.

High resolution wind turbine wake measurements with a scanning lidar

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herges, T. G.; Maniaci, D. C.; Naughton, B. T.

2017-01-01

High-resolution lidar wake measurements are part of an ongoing field campaign being conducted at the Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory using a customized scanning lidar from the Technical University of Denmark. One...

Wind Turbine Tribology Seminar - A Recap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Errichello, R.; Sheng, S.; Keller, J.; Greco, A.

2012-02-01

Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication, and wear. It is an important phenomenon that not only impacts the design and operation of wind turbine gearboxes, but also their subsequent maintenance requirements and overall reliability. With the major growth and increasing dependency on renewable energy, mechanical reliability is an extremely important issue. The Wind Turbine Tribology Seminar was convened to explore the state-of-the-art in wind turbine tribology and lubricant technologies, raise industry awareness of a very complex topic, present the science behind each technology, and identify possible R&D areas. To understand the background of work that had already been accomplished, and to consolidate some level of collective understanding of tribology by acknowledged experts, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted a wind turbine tribology seminar. It was held at the Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado on November 15-17, 2011. This report is a summary of the content and conclusions. The presentations given at the meeting can be downloaded. Interested readers who were not at the meeting may wish to consult the detailed publications listed in the bibliography section, obtain the cited articles in the public domain, or contact the authors directly.

WindPACT Turbine Design Scaling Studies Technical Area 2: Turbine, Rotor and Blade Logistics; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, K.

2001-01-01

Through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the United States Department of Energy (DOE) implemented the Wind Partnership for Advanced Component Technologies (WindPACT) program. This program will explore advanced technologies that may reduce the cost of energy (COE) from wind turbines. The initial step in the WindPACT program is a series of preliminary scaling studies intended to determine the optimum sizes for future turbines, help define sizing limits for certain critical technologies, and explore the potential for advanced technologies to contribute to reduced COE as turbine scales increase. This report documents the results of Technical Area 2-Turbine Rotor and Blade Logistics. For this report, we investigated the transportation, assembly, and crane logistics and costs associated with installation of a range of multi-megawatt-scale wind turbines. We focused on using currently available equipment, assembly techniques, and transportation system capabilities and limitations to hypothetically transport and install 50 wind turbines at a facility in south-central South Dakota

Superconducting Wind Turbine Generators

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yunying Pan

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Wind energy is well known as a renewable energy because its clean and less polluted characteristic, which is the foundation of development modern wind electricity. To find more efficient wind turbine is the focus of scientists around the world. Compared from conventional wind turbines, superconducting wind turbine generators have advantages at zero resistance, smaller size and lighter weight. Superconducting wind turbine will inevitably become the main trends in this area. This paper intends to introduce the basic concept and principle of superconductivity, and compare form traditional wind turbine to obtain superiority, then to summary three proposed machine concept.While superconductivity have difficulty  in modern technology and we also have proposed some challenges in achieving superconducting wind turbine finally.

Wind turbine aerodynamics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, D.A. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Wind Energy Group

2010-07-01

The need for clean, renewable electricity in remote communities of Canada and the world was discussed in this presentation. The University of Waterloo Wind Energy Laboratory (WEL) performs research in a large scale indoor environment on wind turbines, blade aerodynamics, and aeroacoustics. A key area of research involves developing turbines for remote off-grid communities where climatic conditions are challenging. This presentation outlined research that is underway on wind energy and off-grid renewable energy systems. Many communities in Canada and remote communities in the rest of the world are not connected to the grid and are dependent on other means to supply electrical energy to their community. Remote communities in northern Canada have no road access and diesel is the dominant source of electrical energy for these communities. All of the community supply of diesel comes from brief winter road access or by air. The presentation discussed existing diesel systems and the solution of developing local renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and solar power. Research goals, wind energy activities, experimental equipment, and the results were also presented. Research projects have been developed in wind energy; hydrogen generation/storage/utilization; power electronics/microgrid; and community engagement. figs.

Wind turbine design : with emphasis on Darrieus concept

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paraschivoiu, I. [Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, PQ (Canada)

2002-07-01

This book described software applications designed to model the aerodynamic performance of the Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbine. The book also provided a comprehensive review of current vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) technology, and discussed recent advances in understanding the physics of flow associated with the Darrieus type of turbine. The principal theories and aerodynamic models for calculating the performance of the turbines were presented, as well as results from experimental data derived from prototypes as well as laboratory measurements. The book was divided into 10 chapters: (1) wind definition and characteristics; (2) a review of the Madaras rotor concept along with an introduction to vortex modelling; (3) an introduction to the geometry of the Darrieus rotor; (4) a single streamtube model; (5) dynamic-stall phenomenon and numerical simulations; (6) double actuator risk theory; (7) details of water channel experiments; (8) modelling of turbine components; (9) wind turbine design parameters; and (10) issues related to socio-economic and environmental impacts. refs., tabs., figs.

Online wind turbine measurement laboratory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, K.S.; Helgesen Pedersen, K.O.; Schmidt Paulsen, U.

2006-01-01

conditions, 3) electrical quantities and 4) mechanical loads in terms of strain gauge signals. The data acquisition system has been designed and implemented by Risø together with students and teachers from DTU. It is based on LabVIEW© combined with a MySQL database for data management. The system enables...... calculations and extreme loads estimation in basic wind turbine courses. Power quality analysis is carried out based on high speed sampled, three-phase voltage and current signals. The wide spectrum of sensors enables a detailed study of the correlation between meteorological, mechanical and electrical...

Controller for a small induction-generator based wind-turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahshan, R.; Iqbal, M.T.; Mann, George K.I. [Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John' s, Newfoundland (Canada)

2008-04-15

Design of a low-cost micro-controller for a small induction-generator based grid-connected wind-turbine is presented in this paper. The controller senses the parameters of the wind-turbine generator and the grid, and makes decisions about grid connection and disconnection. Low-cost instrumentation circuitry has been developed to measure the generator and grid parameters. Based on the measurement of voltage and frequency of the wind-turbine generator and the grid side, a control decision is taken to connect the system to the grid. The controller makes decision to disconnect the system from the grid based on the power flow measurement between the wind turbine and the grid. The power flow between wind turbine and the grid depends upon the availability of the wind. The prototype controller has been developed based on a micro-controller PIC16F877 and has been tested in the laboratory. (author)

Wind Speed Preview Measurement and Estimation for Feedforward Control of Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Simley, Eric J.

Wind turbines typically rely on feedback controllers to maximize power capture in below-rated conditions and regulate rotor speed during above-rated operation. However, measurements of the approaching wind provided by Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) can be used as part of a preview-based, or feedforward, control system in order to improve rotor speed regulation and reduce structural loads. But the effectiveness of preview-based control depends on how accurately lidar can measure the wind that will interact with the turbine. In this thesis, lidar measurement error is determined using a statistical frequency-domain wind field model including wind evolution, or the change in turbulent wind speeds between the time they are measured and when they reach the turbine. Parameters of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5-MW reference turbine model are used to determine measurement error for a hub-mounted circularly-scanning lidar scenario, based on commercially-available technology, designed to estimate rotor effective uniform and shear wind speed components. By combining the wind field model, lidar model, and turbine parameters, the optimal lidar scan radius and preview distance that yield the minimum mean square measurement error, as well as the resulting minimum achievable error, are found for a variety of wind conditions. With optimized scan scenarios, it is found that relatively low measurement error can be achieved, but the attainable measurement error largely depends on the wind conditions. In addition, the impact of the induction zone, the region upstream of the turbine where the approaching wind speeds are reduced, as well as turbine yaw error on measurement quality is analyzed. In order to minimize the mean square measurement error, an optimal measurement prefilter is employed, which depends on statistics of the correlation between the preview measurements and the wind that interacts with the turbine. However, because the wind speeds encountered by

Wind Turbine Generator System Acoustic Noise Test Report for the Gaia Wind 11-kW Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huskey, A.

2011-11-01

This report details the acoustic noise test conducted on the Gaia-Wind 11-kW wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center. The test turbine is a two- bladed, downwind wind turbine with a rated power of 11 kW. The test turbine was tested in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission standard, IEC 61400-11 Ed 2.1 2006-11 Wind Turbine Generator Systems -- Part 11 Acoustic Noise Measurement Techniques.

Cross-flow turbines: progress report on physical and numerical model studies at large laboratory scale

Science.gov (United States)

Wosnik, Martin; Bachant, Peter

2016-11-01

Cross-flow turbines show potential in marine hydrokinetic (MHK) applications. A research focus is on accurately predicting device performance and wake evolution to improve turbine array layouts for maximizing overall power output, i.e., minimizing wake interference, or taking advantage of constructive wake interaction. Experiments were carried with large laboratory-scale cross-flow turbines D O (1 m) using a turbine test bed in a large cross-section tow tank, designed to achieve sufficiently high Reynolds numbers for the results to be Reynolds number independent with respect to turbine performance and wake statistics, such that they can be reliably extrapolated to full scale and used for model validation. Several turbines of varying solidity were employed, including the UNH Reference Vertical Axis Turbine (RVAT) and a 1:6 scale model of the DOE-Sandia Reference Model 2 (RM2) turbine. To improve parameterization in array simulations, an actuator line model (ALM) was developed to provide a computationally feasible method for simulating full turbine arrays inside Navier-Stokes models. Results are presented for the simulation of performance and wake dynamics of cross-flow turbines and compared with experiments and body-fitted mesh, blade-resolving CFD. Supported by NSF-CBET Grant 1150797, Sandia National Laboratories.

Duration Test Report for the Ventera VT10 Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, J.; Huskey, A.; Jager, D.; Hur, J.

2013-06-01

This project was established to help reduce the barriers of wind energy expansion by providing independent testing results for small wind turbines. Five turbines were tested at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a part of round one of this project. Duration testing is one of up to five tests that may be performed on the turbines, including power performance, safety and function, noise, and power quality. Test results will provide manufacturers with reports that can be used to fulfill part of the requirements for small wind turbine certification. The test equipment included a grid-connected Ventera Energy Corporation VT10 wind turbine mounted on an 18.3-m (60-ft) self-supporting lattice tower manufactured by Rohn.

Built Environment Wind Turbine Roadmap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, J. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Forsyth, T. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sinclair, K. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Oteri, F. [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2012-11-01

The market currently encourages BWT deployment before the technology is ready for full-scale commercialization. To address this issue, industry stakeholders convened a Rooftop and Built-Environment Wind Turbine Workshop on August 11 - 12, 2010, at the National Wind Technology Center, located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. This report summarizes the workshop.

Imitation of the characteristics of the wind turbine based on DC motor

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LIU Qihui; HE Yikang; ZHAO Rende

2007-01-01

This paper analyzed the operating principles and power and torque characteristics of the wind turbine and the direct current motor(DC motor),and investigated the operating characteristics of the wind turbine compared to that of the DC motor.The torque imitation scheme,which has good performance and high feasibility,together with the whole wind turbine imitation system,was provided.The wind turbine imitation system includes not only a hardware platform composed of PC,data-collection board and thyristor-based velocity-regulator,but also monitor software of wind turbine imitation.The experimental results of different occasions verify the correctness and feasibility of the wind turbine imitation scheme proposed in this paper,which provided a valid idea for wind turbine imitation and investigation of wind power generation techniques in the laboratory.

Wind Turbine Technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anca Daniela

2017-01-01

, and with or without gearboxes, using the latest in power electronics, aerodynamics, and mechanical drive train designs [4]. The main differences between all wind turbine concepts developed over the years, concern their electrical design and control. Today, the wind turbines on the market mix and match a variety......, the design of wind turbines has changed from being convention driven to being optimized driven within the operating regime and market environment. Wind turbine designs have progressed from fixed speed, passive controlled and with drive trains with gearboxes, to become variable speed, active controlled......,6] and to implement modern control system strategies....

Built-Environment Wind Turbine Roadmap

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, J.; Forsyth, T.; Sinclair, K.; Oteri, F.

2012-11-01

Although only a small contributor to total electricity production needs, built-environment wind turbines (BWTs) nonetheless have the potential to influence the public's consideration of renewable energy, and wind energy in particular. Higher population concentrations in urban environments offer greater opportunities for project visibility and an opportunity to acquaint large numbers of people to the advantages of wind projects on a larger scale. However, turbine failures will be equally visible and could have a negative effect on public perception of wind technology. This roadmap provides a framework for achieving the vision set forth by the attendees of the Built-Environment Wind Turbine Workshop on August 11 - 12, 2010, at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The BWT roadmap outlines the stakeholder actions that could be taken to overcome the barriers identified. The actions are categorized as near-term (0 - 3 years), medium-term (4 - 7 years), and both near- and medium-term (requiring immediate to medium-term effort). To accomplish these actions, a strategic approach was developed that identifies two focus areas: understanding the built-environment wind resource and developing testing and design standards. The authors summarize the expertise and resources required in these areas.

A wind-tunnel investigation of wind-turbine wakes in different yawed and loading conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Bastankhah, Majid; Porté-Agel, Fernando

2015-04-01

Wind-turbine wakes have negative effects on wind-farm performance. They are associated with: (a) the velocity deficit, which reduces the generated power of downwind turbines; and (b) the turbulence level, which increases the fatigue loads on downwind turbines. Controlling the yaw angle of turbines can potentially improve the performance of wind farms by deflecting the wake away from downwind turbines. However, except for few studies, wakes of yawed turbines still suffer from the lack of systematic research. To fill this research gap, we performed wind-tunnel experiments in the recirculating boundary-layer wind tunnel at the WIRE Laboratory of EPFL to better understand the wakes of yawed turbines. High-resolution stereoscopic particle image-velocimetry (S-PIV) was used to measure three velocity components in a horizontal plane located downwind of a horizontal-axis, three-blade model turbine. A servo-controller was connected to the DC generator of the turbine, which allowed us to apply different loadings. The power and thrust coefficients of the turbine were also measured for each case. These power and thrust measurements together with the highly-resolved flow measurements enabled us to study different wake characteristics such as the energy entrainment from the outer flow into the wake, the wake deflection and the helicoidal tip vortices for yawed turbines.

Using High-Fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics to Help Design a Wind Turbine Wake Measurement Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Churchfield, M; Wang, Q; Scholbrock, A; Herges, T; Mikkelsen, T; Sjöholm, M

2016-01-01

We describe the process of using large-eddy simulations of wind turbine wake flow to help design a wake measurement campaign. The main goal of the experiment is to measure wakes and wake deflection that result from intentional yaw misalignment under a variety of atmospheric conditions at the Scaled Wind Farm Technology facility operated by Sandia National Laboratories in Lubbock, Texas. Prior simulation studies have shown that wake deflection may be used for wind-plant control that maximizes plant power output. In this study, simulations are performed to characterize wake deflection and general behavior before the experiment is performed to ensure better upfront planning. Beyond characterizing the expected wake behavior, we also use the large-eddy simulation to test a virtual version of the lidar we plan to use to measure the wake and better understand our lidar scan strategy options. This work is an excellent example of a “simulation-in-the-loop” measurement campaign. (paper)

Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Martin Otto Laver

Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines is the established essential text for the fundamental solutions to efficient wind turbine design. Now in its second edition, it has been entirely updated and substantially extended to reflect advances in technology, research into rotor aerodynamics and the structural...... response of the wind turbine structure. Topics covered include increasing mass flow through the turbine, performance at low and high wind speeds, assessment of the extreme conditions under which the turbine will perform and the theory for calculating the lifetime of the turbine. The classical Blade Element...... Momentum method is also covered, as are eigenmodes and the dynamic behavior of a turbine. The new material includes a description of the effects of the dynamics and how this can be modeled in an aeroelastic code, which is widely used in the design and verification of modern wind turbines. Further...

Partnering with Sandia National Laboratories through alliances or consortia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Winchell, B.M.

1994-12-01

To better facilitate working with industry, groups of industrial participants, and partners in alliances or consortia, Sandia National Laboratories presents information helpful to those outside groups as to the forms of arrangements that may be used to better facilitate partnering relationships between Sandia National Laboratories and consortia or alliances of outside parties. It is expected that these alliances and consortia will include both large and small for-profit industrial concerns, as well as not-for-profit entities such as universities, institutes, other research facilities, and other nonprofit institutions or consortia containing institutions. The intent of this report is to provide such outside groups with information that will facilitate rapid interactions with Sandia National Laboratories through some of these forms of business which will be discussed in this report. These are not the only approaches to facilitating business interactions with Sandia National Laboratories and it is not intended that this report be legal advice or required approaches to doing business with Sandia National Laboratories. The intent of this report is merely to suggest ways in which Sandia National Laboratories can work with outside parties in the most expeditious manner.

Partnering with Sandia National Laboratories through alliances or consortia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Winchell, B.M.

1994-04-01

To better facilitate working with industry, groups of industrial participants, and partners in alliances or consortia, Sandia National laboratories presents information helpful to those outside groups as to the forms of arrangements that may be used to better facilitate partnering relationships between Sandia National Laboratories and consortia or alliances of outside parties. It is expected that these alliances and consortia will include both large and small for-profit industrial concerns, as well as not-for-profit entities such as universities, institutes, other research facilities, and other nonprofit institutions or consortia containing institutions. The intent of this report is to provide such outside groups with information that will facilitate rapid interactions with Sandia National Laboratories through some of these forms of business which will be discussed in this report. These are not the only approaches to facilitating business interactions with Sandia National Laboratories and it is not intended that this report be legal advice or required approaches to doing business with Sandia National Laboratories. The intent of this report is merely to suggest ways in which Sandia National Laboratories can work with outside parties in the most expeditious manner.

Pitchcontrol of wind turbines using model free adaptivecontrol based on wind turbine code

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yunqian; Chen, Zhe; Cheng, Ming

2011-01-01

value is only based on I/O data of the wind turbine is identified and then the wind turbine system is replaced by a dynamic linear time-varying model. In order to verify the correctness and robustness of the proposed model free adaptive pitch controller, the wind turbine code FAST which can predict......As the wind turbine is a nonlinear high-order system, to achieve good pitch control performance, model free adaptive control (MFAC) approach which doesn't need the mathematical model of the wind turbine is adopted in the pitch control system in this paper. A pseudo gradient vector whose estimation...... the wind turbine loads and response in high accuracy is used. The results show that the controller produces good dynamic performance, good robustness and adaptability....

Wind conditions for wind turbine design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Maribo Pedersen, B.

1999-04-01

Delegates from Europe and USA attended the meeting and discussed general aspects of wind conditions for wind turbine design. The subjects and the presented papers covered a very broad range of aspects of wind conditions and related influence on the wind turbine. (EHS)

Wind Turbines Wake Aerodynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vermeer, L.; Sørensen, Jens Nørkær; Crespo, A.

2003-01-01

The aerodynamics of horizontal axis wind turbine wakes is studied. The contents is directed towards the physics of power extraction by wind turbines and reviews both the near and the far wake region. For the near wake, the survey is restricted to uniform, steady and parallel flow conditions......, thereby excluding wind shear, wind speed and rotor setting changes and yawed conditions. The emphasis is put on measurements in controlled conditions.For the far wake, the survey focusses on both single turbines and wind farm effects, and the experimental and numerical work are reviewed; the main interest...... is to study how the far wake decays downstream, in order to estimate the effect produced in downstream turbines.The article is further restricted to horizontal axis wind turbines and excludes all other types of turbines....

Sandia National Laboratories analysis code data base

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peterson, C.W.

1994-11-01

Sandia National Laboratories, mission is to solve important problems in the areas of national defense, energy security, environmental integrity, and industrial technology. The Laboratories` strategy for accomplishing this mission is to conduct research to provide an understanding of the important physical phenomena underlying any problem, and then to construct validated computational models of the phenomena which can be used as tools to solve the problem. In the course of implementing this strategy, Sandia`s technical staff has produced a wide variety of numerical problem-solving tools which they use regularly in the design, analysis, performance prediction, and optimization of Sandia components, systems and manufacturing processes. This report provides the relevant technical and accessibility data on the numerical codes used at Sandia, including information on the technical competency or capability area that each code addresses, code ``ownership`` and release status, and references describing the physical models and numerical implementation.

Numerical Simulation of Wind Turbine Blade-Tower Interaction

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Qiang Wang; Hu Zhou; Decheng Wan

2012-01-01

Numerical simulations of wind turbine blade-tower interaction by using the open source OpenFOAM tools coupled with arbitrary mesh interface (AMI) method were presented.The governing equations were the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (PANS) which were solved by the pimpleDyMFoam solver,and the AMI method was employed to handle mesh movements.The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) phase Ⅵ wind turbine in upwind configuration was selected for numerical tests with different incoming wind speeds (5,10,15,and 25 m/s) at a fixed blade pitch and constant rotational speed.Detailed numerical results of vortex structure,time histories of thrust,and pressure distribution on the blade and tower were presented.The findings show that the wind turbine tower has little effect on the whole aerodynamic performance of an upwind wind turbine,while the rotating rotor will induce an obvious cyclic drop in the front pressure of the tower.Also,strong interaction of blade tip vortices with separation from the tower was observed.

Discord amongst the wind turbine buyers with regard to Dutch wind turbine manufacturers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janse, F.

1992-01-01

In the Netherlands two medium-large manufacturers of wind turbines exist: NedWind (Hollandia Kloos) and Windmaster Nederland (Begemann Groep). Also Lagerwey, which constructs wind turbines for the private market (farmers, cooperatives), is important for the Dutch market and successfull in Germany. There is a tendency amongst the Dutch energy utilities, which cooperate in the foundation WindPlan, to buy wind turbines from foreign manufacturers. Some energy utilities want to take advantage of the most attractive offers, while others want to cooperate in building up a Dutch wind turbine industry. 5 ills

A History of Building 828, Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ullrich, Rebecca

1999-08-01

This report documents the history of Building 828 in Sandia National Laboratories' Technical Area I. Building 828 was constructed in 1946 as a mechanical test laboratory for Los Alamos' Z-Division (later Sandia) as it moved to Sandia Base. The building has undergone significant remodeling over the years and has had a variety of occupants. The building was evaluated in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act, but was not eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Nevertheless, for many Labs employees, it was a symbol of Sandia's roots in World War II and the Manhattan Project.

Turbulence and wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brand, Arno J.; Peinke, Joachim; Mann, Jakob

2011-01-01

The nature of turbulent flow towards, near and behind a wind turbine, the effect of turbulence on the electricity production and the mechanical loading of individual and clustered wind turbines, and some future issues are discussed.......The nature of turbulent flow towards, near and behind a wind turbine, the effect of turbulence on the electricity production and the mechanical loading of individual and clustered wind turbines, and some future issues are discussed....

Site environmental report for 2004 Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L. (Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA)

2005-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration. The DOE Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2004 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A. The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2004. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site Environmental Report for 2007: Sandia National Laboratories, California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States). Environmental Management Dept.

2008-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2007 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A (DOE 2004a). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2007. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site environmental report for 2008 Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2009-04-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2008 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A (DOE 2004a). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2008. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site environmental report for 2006 Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2007-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2006 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A (DOE 2004a). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2006. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site environmental report for 2005 Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2006-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The DOE/NNSA Sandia Site Office (SSO) oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2005 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A. The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2005. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site environmental report for 2003 Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2004-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration. The DOE Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2003 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A. The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2003. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Wind turbines and infrasound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Howe, B.

2006-01-01

This paper provided the results of a study conducted to assess the impacts of wind farm-induced infrasound on nearby residences and human populations. Infrasound occurs at frequencies below those considered as detectable by human hearing. Infrasonic levels caused by wind turbines are often similar to ambient levels of 85 dBG or lower that are caused by wind in the natural environment. This study examined the levels at which infrasound poses a threat to human health or can be considered as an annoyance. The study examined levels of infrasound caused by various types of wind turbines, and evaluated acoustic phenomena and characteristics associated with wind turbines. Results of the study suggested that infrasound near modern wind turbines is typically not perceptible to humans through either auditory or non-auditory mechanisms. However, wind turbines often create an audible broadband noise whose amplitude can be modulated at low frequencies. A review of both Canadian and international studies concluded that infrasound generated by wind turbines should not significantly impact nearby residences or human populations. 17 refs., 2 tabs., 4 figs

Assessment and prediction of wind turbine noise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lowson, M.V.

1993-01-01

The significance of basic aerodynamic noise sources for wind turbine noise are assessed, using information on the aero-acoustic mechanisms of other rotors, which have been studied in depth for many years. From the analysis, areas of potential improvement in wind turbine noise prediction are defined. Suggestions are made for approaches to wind turbine noise control which separate the noise problems at cut-in from those at rated power. Some of these offer the possibility of noise reduction without unfavourable effects on performance. Based on this analysis, a new model for prediction of wind turbine noise is presented and comparisons made between prediction and experiment. The model is based on well established aeroacoustic theory and published laboratory data for the two principal sources, inflow turbulence and boundary layer trailing edge interaction. The new method gives good agreement with experiment with the case studied so far. Parametric trends and sensitivities for the model are presented. Comparisons with previous prediction methods are also given. A consequence of the new model is to put more emphasis on boundary layer trailing edge interaction as a noise source. There are prospects for reducing noise from this source detail changes to the wind turbine design. (author)

Electrical components library for HAWC2; Wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cutululis, N.A.; Larsen, Torben J.; Soerensen, Poul; Hansen, Anca D. (Risoe National Lab., DTU, Wind Energy Dept., Roskilde (DK)); Iov, F. (Aalborg Univ., Institute of Energy Technology (DK))

2007-12-15

The work presented in this report is part of the EFP project called ''A Simulation Platform to Model, Optimize and Design Wind Turbines'' partly funded by the Danish Energy Authority under contract number 1363/04-0008. The project is carried out in cooperation between Risoe National Laboratory and Aalborg University. In this project, the focus is on the development of a simulation platform for wind turbine systems using different simulation tools. This report presents the electric component library developed for use in the aeroelastic code HAWC2. The developed library includes both steady state and dynamical models for fixed and variable speed wind turbines. A simple steady-state slip model was developed for the fixed speed wind turbine. This model is suitable for aeroelastic design of wind turbines under normal operation. A dynamic model of an induction generator for the fixed speed wind turbine was developed. The model includes the dynamics of the rotor fluxes. The model is suitable for a more detailed investigation of the mechanical-electrical interaction, both under normal and fault operation. For the variable speed wind turbine, a steadystate model, typically used in aeroelastic design, was implemented. The model can be used for normal and, to some extent, for fault operation. The reduced order dynamic model of a DFIG was implemented. The model includes only the active power controller and can be used for normal operation conditions. (au)

Draft-circular on wind turbines. Concept-circulaire wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1983-01-01

Criteria for providing licenses to build and operate a wind turbine are surveyed. Factors to consider are: characteristics of the landscape, density of population, town and country planning, environmental aspects (birds), safety and nuisance. National regulations for wind turbines will simplify licensing procedures and improve legal security.

Economic feasibility of developing wind turbines in Aligoodarz, Iran

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohammadi, Kasra; Mostafaeipour, Ali

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Three hourly long term measured wind speed data from 2005 to 2009 for city of Aligoodarz in Iran was analyzed. • Wind power density and wind energy density of the region were estimated using Weibull distribution. • Performance of six different wind turbine models were analyzed. • Economic evaluation was performed and installing of E-3120 (50 kW) model turbine was suggested. - Abstract: This study evaluates the economic feasibility of electricity generation using wind turbines in city of Aligoodarz situated in the west part of Iran. For this purpose, the wind energy potential and its characteristics were assessed in terms of diurnal, monthly and annual analysis using five years measured wind speed data from 2005 to 2009 at 10 m height. The analysis results specified a nearly stable wind pattern in different hours and months of the year which demonstrated more suitability of the region for wind energy harnessing to meet the electricity demand in all time intervals throughout the year. According to Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) wind power classification, the wind resource in Aligoodarz falls in class 3 and the location was recognized as a moderate location for wind energy development. The economic feasibility of six different wind turbines with rated powers ranging from 20 to 150 kW was evaluated. Among all turbines examined, the E-3120 wind turbine was introduced as the most attractive option for installation

Wind turbines and idiopathic symptoms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blanes-Vidal, Victoria; Schwartz, Joel

2016-01-01

Whether or not wind turbines pose a risk to human health is a matter of heated debate. Personal reactions to other environmental exposures occurring in the same settings as wind turbines may be responsible of the reported symptoms. However, these have not been accounted for in previous studies. We...... investigated whether there is an association between residential proximity to wind turbines and idiopathic symptoms, after controlling for personal reactions to other environmental co-exposures. We assessed wind turbine exposures in 454 residences as the distance to the closest wind turbine (Dw) and number...... of wind turbines

Wind turbine reliability :understanding and minimizing wind turbine operation and maintenance costs.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Walford, Christopher A. (Global Energy Concepts. Kirkland, WA)

2006-03-01

Wind turbine system reliability is a critical factor in the success of a wind energy project. Poor reliability directly affects both the project's revenue stream through increased operation and maintenance (O&M) costs and reduced availability to generate power due to turbine downtime. Indirectly, the acceptance of wind-generated power by the financial and developer communities as a viable enterprise is influenced by the risk associated with the capital equipment reliability; increased risk, or at least the perception of increased risk, is generally accompanied by increased financing fees or interest rates. This paper outlines the issues relevant to wind turbine reliability for wind turbine power generation projects. The first sections describe the current state of the industry, identify the cost elements associated with wind farm O&M and availability and discuss the causes of uncertainty in estimating wind turbine component reliability. The latter sections discuss the means for reducing O&M costs and propose O&M related research and development efforts that could be pursued by the wind energy research community to reduce cost of energy.

Sandia`s network for Supercomputing `94: Linking the Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories using switched multimegabit data service

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vahle, M.O.; Gossage, S.A.; Brenkosh, J.P. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Advanced Networking Integration Dept.

1995-01-01

Supercomputing `94, a high-performance computing and communications conference, was held November 14th through 18th, 1994 in Washington DC. For the past four years, Sandia National Laboratories has used this conference to showcase and focus its communications and networking endeavors. At the 1994 conference, Sandia built a Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) network running at 44.736 megabits per second linking its private SMDS network between its facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Livermore, California to the convention center in Washington, D.C. For the show, the network was also extended from Sandia, New Mexico to Los Alamos National Laboratory and from Sandia, California to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This paper documents and describes this network and how it was used at the conference.

Wind Turbine Generator System Power Performance Test Report for the ARE442 Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

van Dam, J.; Jager, D.

2010-02-01

This report summarizes the results of a power performance test that NREL conducted on the ARE 442 wind turbine. This test was conducted in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission's (IEC) standard, Wind Turbine Generator Systems Part 12: Power Performance Measurements of Electricity Producing Wind Turbines, IEC 61400-12-1 Ed.1.0, 2005-12. However, because the ARE 442 is a small turbine as defined by IEC, NREL also followed Annex H that applies to small wind turbines. In these summary results, wind speed is normalized to sea-level air density.

Aerodynamics of wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Martin Otto Laver

Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines is the established essential text for the fundamental solutions to efficient wind turbine design. Now in its third edition, it has been substantially updated with respect to structural dynamics and control. The new control chapter now includes details on how to design...... Turbines (VAWT). Topics covered include increasing mass flow through the turbine, performance at low and high wind speeds, assessment of the extreme conditions under which the turbine will perform and the theory for calculating the lifetime of the turbine. The classical Blade Element Momentum method...... is also covered, as are eigenmodes and the dynamic behaviour of a turbine. The book describes the effects of the dynamics and how this can be modelled in an aeroelastic code, which is widely used in the design and verification of modern wind turbines. Furthermore, it examines how to calculate...

Scanning Lidar Spatial Calibration and Alignment Method for Wind Turbine Wake Characterization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Herges, Thomas; Maniaci, David; Naughton, Brian

2017-01-01

Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted a field campaign at the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) Facility using a customized scanning lidar from the Technical University of Denmark. The results from this field campaign will support the validation...

Potential health impact of wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-05-01

In response to public health concerns about wind turbines, a study was conducted to review the scientific evidence on the potential health effects of wind turbines. Several research questions were examined, including scientific evidence on the potential health impacts of wind turbines; the relationship between wind turbine noise and health; the relationship between low frequency sound, infrasound and health; assessment of exposure to wind turbines; wind turbine health and safety hazards and Ontario wind turbine setbacks; community consultation prior to wind farm construction and data gaps and research needs. The study showed that although some people living near wind turbines reported symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects. The sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct health effects, although some people may find it annoying. 41 refs., 1 appendix.

The design, simulation and testing of an urban vertical axis wind turbine with the omni-direction-guide-vane

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chong, W.T.; Fazlizan, A.; Poh, S.C.; Pan, K.C.; Hew, W.P.; Hsiao, F.B.

2013-01-01

Graphical abstract: Solar energy, renewable energy, urban wind energy, environment, augmented wind turbine. Highlights: ► A system for on-site wind–solar hybrid power generation and rain water collection. ► The omni-direction-guide-vane (ODGV) overcomes the weak wind and turbulence conditions in urban areas. ► The ODGV improves the wind turbine performance by speeding-up and guiding the wind. ► The ODGV is designed to blend into the building architecture with safety enhancement. ► The wind tunnel test and CFD simulation results are presented. - Abstract: A novel omni-direction-guide-vane (ODGV) that surrounds a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) is designed to improve the wind turbine performance. Wind tunnel testing was performed to evaluate the performance of a 5-bladed (Wortmann FX63-137 airfoil) H-rotor wind turbine, with and without the integration of the ODGV. The test was conducted using a scaled model turbine which was constructed to simulate the VAWT enclosed by the ODGV placed on a building. The VAWT shows an improvement on its self-starting behavior where the cut-in speed was reduced with the integration of the ODGV. Since the VAWT is able to self-start at a lower wind speed, the working hour of the wind turbine would increase. At a wind speed of 6 m/s and under free-running condition (only rotor inertia and bearing friction were applied), the ODGV helps to increase the rotor rotational speed by 182%. With extra load application at the same wind speed (6 m/s), the wind turbine power output was increased by 3.48 times at its peak torque with the aid of the ODGV. The working concept of the ODGV is to minimize the negative torque zone of a lift-type VAWT and to reduce turbulence and rotational speed fluctuation. It was verified by re-simulating the torque coefficient data of a single bladed (NACA 0015 airfoil) VAWT published by the Sandia National Laboratories. From the simulation results, with the presence of the ODGV, it was shown that the

Wind Turbine Measurement Technique—an Open Laboratory for Educational Purposes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Knud Ole Helgesen; Hansen, Kurt Schaldemose; Schmidt Paulsen, Uwe

2008-01-01

operational parameters, (ii) meteorological onditions, (iii) electrical quantities and (iv) mechanical loads. The data acquisition system was PC based, and it was combined with a MySQL® database for data management.The system enabled online access for real-time recordings,which were used both...... of non-commercial time series, which would be available for practicing fatigue calculations and extreme load estimation in basic wind turbine courses. Power quality analysis was carried out based on high-speed-sampled, three-phase voltage and current signals. The wide spectrum of sensors enabled....... The WTMLAB was included in a new course entitled Wind Turbine Measurement Techniques....

Operation Design of Wind Turbines in Strong Wind Conditions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shen, Wen Zhong; Montes, Melissa Barroso; Odgaard, Peter Fogh

2012-01-01

and variable speed pitch regulated wind turbines. The variable speed design is more suitable for wind turbines to run at very high wind speeds which can help the turbine braking system to stop the turbine at the new "cut-out" wind speed. Reference power, rotational speed and pitch angle have been designed...... optimally. In order to reduce the possible increased loading, fatigue due to the wind gusts, control strategies have been considered for both constant sped and variable speed pitch regulated wind turbines. The control study shows that the designed controllers can reduce the standard deviations efficiently......In order to reduce the impact on the electrical grid from the shutdown of MW wind turbines at wind speeds higher than the cut-out wind speed of 25 m/s, we propose in this paper to run the turbines at high wind speeds up to 40 m/s. Two different operation designs are made for both constant speed...

Development of a 5 MW reference gearbox for offshore wind turbines

OpenAIRE

Rasekhi Nejad, Amir; Guo, Yi; Gao, Zhen; Moan, Torgeir

2016-01-01

This paper presents detailed descriptions, modeling parameters and technical data of a 5MW high-speed gearbox developed for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory offshore 5MW baseline wind turbine. The main aim of this paper is to support the concept studies and research for large offshore wind turbines by providing a baseline gearbox model with detailed modeling parameters. This baseline gearbox follows the most conventional design types of those used in wind turbines. It is based on the ...

Stress analysis of composite wind turbine blade by finite element method

Science.gov (United States)

Yeh, Meng-Kao; Wang, Chen-Hsu

2017-10-01

In this study, the finite element analysis software ANSYS was used to analyze the composite wind turbine blade. The wind turbine blade model used is adopted from the 5 MW model of US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The wind turbine blade is a sandwich structure, comprising outermost carbon fiber cloth/epoxy composites, the inner glass fiber/vinylester layers, and PVC foam core, together with stiffeners. The wind pressure is converted into the load on the blade structure. The stress distribution and deformation of wind turbine blade were obtained by considering different pitch angles and at different angular positions. The Tsai-Hill criterion was used to determine the failure of wind turbine blade. The results show that at the 0° pitch angle, the wind turbine blade is subjected to the largest combined load and therefore the stress is the largest; with the increasing pitch angle, the load gradually decreases and the stress is also smaller. The stress and displacement are the greatest when the wind blade is located at 120° angular position from its highest vertex.

Sandia National Laboratories: Sandia National Laboratories: Missions:

Science.gov (United States)

Responsibility History Diversity Social Media Careers View All Jobs Students & Postdocs Benefits & Perks Technology Deployment Centers New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program Sandia's Economic Impact Sandia interest Menu Search Icon Locations Contact Us Employee Locator Search Menu About Leadership Mission Social

Urban wind turbines. Guidelines for small wind turbines in the built environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cace, J.; Ter Horst, E.; Syngellakis, K.; Niel, M.; Clement, P.; Heppener, R.; Peirano, E.

2007-02-01

The objective of the WINEUR project (Wind Energy Integration in the Urban Environment) is to determine the deployability of small wind turbines in built environments while identifying the current significant constraints and possible solutions. The purpose of this document is to Inform the stakeholders about the state of the development of small wind turbines for the built environment; Provide practical guidelines to actors dealing with installation of small wind turbines in urban areas; and Provide recommendations for future products and for market development

Using High-Fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics to Help Design a Wind Turbine Wake

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Churchfield, Matthew J.; Wang, Qi; Scholbrock, A.

2016-01-01

Wind Farm Technology facility operated by Sandia National Laboratories in Lubbock, Texas. Prior simulation studies have shown that wake deflection may be used for wind-plant control that maximizes plant power output. In this study, simulations are performed to characterize wake deflection and general...

Sandia National Laboratories analysis code data base

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, C. W.

1994-11-01

Sandia National Laboratories' mission is to solve important problems in the areas of national defense, energy security, environmental integrity, and industrial technology. The laboratories' strategy for accomplishing this mission is to conduct research to provide an understanding of the important physical phenomena underlying any problem, and then to construct validated computational models of the phenomena which can be used as tools to solve the problem. In the course of implementing this strategy, Sandia's technical staff has produced a wide variety of numerical problem-solving tools which they use regularly in the design, analysis, performance prediction, and optimization of Sandia components, systems, and manufacturing processes. This report provides the relevant technical and accessibility data on the numerical codes used at Sandia, including information on the technical competency or capability area that each code addresses, code 'ownership' and release status, and references describing the physical models and numerical implementation.

Noise from wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fegeant, Olivier [Royal Inst. of Tech., Stockholm (Sweden). Dept. of Building Sciences

2002-02-01

A rapid growth of installed wind power capacity is expected in the next few years. However, the siting of wind turbines on a large scale raises concerns about their environmental impact, notably with respect to noise. To this end, variable speed wind turbines offer a promising solution for applications in densely populated areas like the European countries, as this design would enable an efficient utilisation of the masking effect due to ambient noise. In rural and recreational areas where wind turbines are sited, the ambient noise originates from the action of wind on the vegetation and about the listener's ear (pseudo-noise). It shows a wind speed dependence similar to that of the noise from a variable speed wind turbine and can therefore mask the latter for a wide range of conditions. However, a problem inherent to the design of these machines is their proclivity to pure tone generation, because of the enhanced difficulty of avoiding structural resonances in the mechanical parts. Pure tones are deemed highly annoying and are severely regulated by most noise policies. In relation to this problem, the vibration transmission of structure-borne sound to the tower of the turbine is investigated, in particular when the tower is stiffened at its upper end. Furthermore, since noise annoyance due to wind turbine is mostly a masking issue, the wind-related sources of ambient noise are studied and their masking potentials assessed. With this aim, prediction models for wind-induced vegetation noise and pseudo-noise have been developed. Finally, closely related to the effect of masking, is the difficulty, regularly encountered by local authorities and wind farm developers, to measure noise immission from wind turbines. A new measurement technique has thus been developed in the course of this work. Through improving the signal-to-noise ratio between wind turbine noise and ambient noise, the new technique yields more accurate measurement results.

Reliability Analysis of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2008-01-01

In order to minimise the total expected life-cycle costs of a wind turbine it is important to estimate the reliability level for all components in the wind turbine. This paper deals with reliability analysis for the tower and blades of onshore wind turbines placed in a wind farm. The limit states...... consideres are in the ultimate limit state (ULS) extreme conditions in the standstill position and extreme conditions during operating. For wind turbines, where the magnitude of the loads is influenced by the control system, the ultimate limit state can occur in both cases. In the fatigue limit state (FLS......) the reliability level for a wind turbine placed in a wind farm is considered, and wake effects from neighbouring wind turbines is taken into account. An illustrative example with calculation of the reliability for mudline bending of the tower is considered. In the example the design is determined according...

Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities: testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundergan, C.D.

1975-12-01

The testing capabilities at Sandia Laboratories are characterized. Selected applications of these capabilities are presented to illustrate the extent to which they can be applied in research and development programs

Wind turbine wake characterization using long-range Doppler lidar

Science.gov (United States)

Aitken, M.; Lundquist, J. K.; Hestmark, K.; Banta, R. M.; Pichugina, Y.; Brewer, A.

2012-12-01

Wind turbines extract energy from the freestream flow, resulting in a waked region behind the rotor which is characterized by reduced wind speed and increased turbulence. The velocity deficit in the wake diminishes with distance, as faster-moving air outside is gradually entrained. In a concentrated group of turbines, then, downwind machines experience very different inflow conditions compared to those in the front row. As utility-scale turbines rarely exist in isolation, detailed knowledge of the mean flow and turbulence structure inside wakes is needed to correctly model both power production and turbine loading at modern wind farms. To this end, the Turbine Wake and Inflow Characterization Study (TWICS) was conducted in the spring of 2011 to determine the reduction in wind speeds downstream from a multi-MW turbine located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) near Boulder, Colorado. Full-scale measurements of wake dynamics are hardly practical or even possible with conventional sensors, such as cup anemometers mounted on meteorological (met) masts. Accordingly, the High Resolution Doppler Lidar (HRDL) developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory was employed to investigate the formation and propagation of wakes under varying levels of ambient wind speed, shear, atmospheric stability, and turbulence. HRDL remotely senses line-of-sight wind velocities and has been used in several previous studies of boundary layer aerodynamics. With a fully steerable beam and a maximum range up to about 5 km, depending on atmospheric conditions, HRDL performed a comprehensive survey of the wind flow in front of and behind the turbine to study the shape, meandering, and attenuation of wakes. Due in large part to limited experimental data availability, wind farm wake modeling is still subject to an unacceptable amount of uncertainty, particularly in complex terrain. Here, analytical

Mobile robotics research at Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Morse, W.D.

1998-09-01

Sandia is a National Security Laboratory providing scientific and engineering solutions to meet national needs for both government and industry. As part of this mission, the Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center conducts research and development in robotics and intelligent machine technologies. An overview of Sandia`s mobile robotics research is provided. Recent achievements and future directions in the areas of coordinated mobile manipulation, small smart machines, world modeling, and special application robots are presented.

Sandia National Laboratories Institutional Plan: FY 1996--2001

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-12-31

Sandia`s Institutional Plan is by necessity a large document. As their missions have grown and diversified over the past decades, the variety of technical and site activities has increased. The programs and activities described here cover an enormous breadth of scientific and technological effort--from the creation of new materials to the development of a Sandia-wide electronic communications system. Today, there are three major themes that greatly influence this work. First, every federally funded institution is being challenged to find ways to become more cost effective, as the US seeks to reduce the deficit and achieve a balanced federal spending plan. Sandia is evaluating its business and operational processes to reduce the overall costs. Second, in response to the Galvin Task Force`s report ``Alternative Futures for the Department of Energy National Laboratories``, Sandia and the Department of Energy are working jointly to reduce the burden of administrative and compliance activities in order to devote more of the total effort to their principal research and development missions. Third, they are reevaluating the match between their missions and the programs they will emphasize in the future. They must demonstrate that Sandia`s roles--in national security, energy security, environmental integrity, and national scientific and technology agenda support--fit their special capabilities and skills and thus ensure their place in these missions for the longer planning horizon. The following areas are covered here: Sandia`s mission; laboratory directives; programmatic activities; technology partnerships and commercialization; Sandia`s resources; and protecting resources and the community.

Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities: electronics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundergan, C.D.

1975-12-01

This report characterizes the electronics capabilities at Sandia Laboratories. Selected applications of these capabilities are presented to illustrate the extent to which they can be applied in research and development programs

Great expectations: large wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Vries, E.

2001-01-01

This article focuses on wind turbine product development, and traces the background to wind turbines from the first generation 1.5 MW machines in 1995-6, plans for the second generation 3-5 MW class turbines to meet the expected boom in offshore wind projects, to the anticipated installation of a 4.5 MW turbine, and offshore wind projects planned for 2000-2002. The switch by the market leader Vestas to variable speed operation in 2000, the new product development and marketing strategy taken by the German Pro + Pro consultancy in their design of a 1.5 MW variable speed pitch control concept, the possible limiting of the size of turbines due to logistical difficulties, opportunities offered by air ships for large turbines, and the commissioning of offshore wind farms are discussed. Details of some 2-5 MW offshore wind turbine design specifications are tabulated

Experimental Study on New Multi-Column Tension-Leg-Type Floating Wind Turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Yong-sheng; She, Xiao-he; He, Yan-ping; Yang, Jian-min; Peng, Tao; Kou, Yu-feng

2018-04-01

Deep-water regions often have winds favorable for offshore wind turbines, and floating turbines currently show the greatest potential to exploit such winds. This work established proper scaling laws for model tests, which were then implemented in the construction of a model wind turbine with optimally designed blades. The aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, and elastic characteristics of the proposed new multi-column tension-leg-type floating wind turbine (WindStar TLP system) were explored in the wave tank testing of a 1:50 scale model at the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Tests were conducted under conditions of still water, white noise waves, irregular waves, and combined wind, wave, and current loads. The results established the natural periods of the motion, damping, motion response amplitude operators, and tendon tensions of the WindStar TLP system under different environmental conditions, and thus could serve as a reference for further research. Key words: floating wind turbine, model test, WindStar TLP, dynamic response

Wind turbine control and monitoring

CERN Document Server

Luo, Ningsu; Acho, Leonardo

2014-01-01

Maximizing reader insights into the latest technical developments and trends involving wind turbine control and monitoring, fault diagnosis, and wind power systems, 'Wind Turbine Control and Monitoring' presents an accessible and straightforward introduction to wind turbines, but also includes an in-depth analysis incorporating illustrations, tables and examples on how to use wind turbine modeling and simulation software.   Featuring analysis from leading experts and researchers in the field, the book provides new understanding, methodologies and algorithms of control and monitoring, comput

Wind turbines and health

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rideout, K.; Copes, R.; Bos, C.

2010-01-01

This document summarized the potential health hazards associated with wind turbines, such as noise and low frequency sound, vibration and infrasound; electromagnetic fields (EMF); shadow flicker; and ice throw and structural failure. Various symptoms can be attributed to wind turbines, including dizziness, sleep disruption, and headaches. A review of available research regarding potential health affects to residents living in close proximity to wind turbines showed that the sound level associated with wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to damage hearing, but may lead to annoyance and sleep disturbance. Research has shown that wind turbines are not a significant source of EMF exposure, and although shadows caused by the blades may be annoying, they are not likely to cause epileptic seizures at normal operational speeds. The risk of injury from ice throw can be minimized with setbacks of 200 to 400 m. Examples of Canadian wind turbine setback guidelines and regulations were also offered. It was concluded that setbacks and operational guidelines can be utilized in combination to address safety hazards, sound levels, land use issues, and impacts on people. 46 refs., 2 tabs., 2 figs.

Wind Turbine Providing Grid Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2011-01-01

changing the operation of the wind turbine to a more efficient working point.; When the rotational speed of the rotor reaches a minimum value, the wind turbine enters a recovery period to re-accelerate the rotor to the nominal rotational speed while further contributing to the stability of the electrical......A variable speed wind turbine is arranged to provide additional electrical power to counteract non-periodic disturbances in an electrical grid. A controller monitors events indicating a need to increase the electrical output power from the wind turbine to the electrical grid. The controller...... is arranged to control the wind turbine as follows: after an indicating event has been detected, the wind turbine enters an overproduction period in which the electrical output power is increased, wherein the additional electrical output power is taken from kinetic energy stored in the rotor and without...

Aerodynamics of wind turbines emerging topics

CERN Document Server

Amano, R S

2014-01-01

Focusing on Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines with topics ranging from Fundamental to Application of horizontal axis wind turbines, this book presents advanced topics including: Basic Theory for Wind turbine Blade Aerodynamics, Computational Methods, and Special Structural Reinforcement Technique for Wind Turbine Blades.

POLLUTION PREVENTION OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT - GEOCHEMISTRY LABORATORY AT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

Science.gov (United States)

These reports summarize pollution prevention opportunity assessments conducted jointly by EPA and DOE at the Geochemistry Laboratory and the Manufacturing and Fabrication Repair Laboratory at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories facility in Albuquerque, New Mex...

Integrated analysis of wind turbines - The impact of power systems on wind turbine design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barahona Garzón, Braulio

Megawatt-size wind turbines nowadays operate in very complex environmental conditions, and increasingly demanding power system requirements. Pursuing a cost-effective and reliable wind turbine design is a multidisciplinary task. However nowadays, wind turbine design and research areas...... conditions that stem from disturbances in the power system. An integrated simulation environment, wind turbine models, and power system models are developed in order to take an integral perspective that considers the most important aeroelastic, structural, electrical, and control dynamics. Applications...... of the integrated simulation environment are presented. The analysis of an asynchronous machine, and numerical simulations of a fixedspeed wind turbine in the integrated simulation environment, demonstrate the effects on structural loads of including the generator rotor fluxes dynamics in aeroelastic studies. Power...

Equivalent models of wind farms by using aggregated wind turbines and equivalent winds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandez, L.M.; Garcia, C.A.; Saenz, J.R.; Jurado, F.

2009-01-01

As a result of the increasing wind farms penetration on power systems, the wind farms begin to influence power system, and therefore the modeling of wind farms has become an interesting research topic. In this paper, new equivalent models of wind farms equipped with wind turbines based on squirrel-cage induction generators and doubly-fed induction generators are proposed to represent the collective behavior on large power systems simulations, instead of using a complete model of wind farms where all the wind turbines are modeled. The models proposed here are based on aggregating wind turbines into an equivalent wind turbine which receives an equivalent wind of the ones incident on the aggregated wind turbines. The equivalent wind turbine presents re-scaled power capacity and the same complete model as the individual wind turbines, which supposes the main feature of the present equivalent models. Two equivalent winds are evaluated in this work: (1) the average wind from the ones incident on the aggregated wind turbines with similar winds, and (2) an equivalent incoming wind derived from the power curve and the wind incident on each wind turbine. The effectiveness of the equivalent models to represent the collective response of the wind farm at the point of common coupling to grid is demonstrated by comparison with the wind farm response obtained from the detailed model during power system dynamic simulations, such as wind fluctuations and a grid disturbance. The present models can be used for grid integration studies of large power system with an important reduction of the model order and the computation time

First International Workshop on Grid Simulator Testing of Wind Turbine Drivetrains: Workshop Proceedings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gevorgian, V.; Link, H.; McDade, M.; Mander, A.; Fox, J. C.; Rigas, N.

2013-11-01

This report summarizes the proceedings of the First International Workshop on Grid Simulator Testing of Wind Turbine Drivetrains, held from June 13 to 14, 2013, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center, located south of Boulder, Colorado. The workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and cohosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Clemson University under ongoing collaboration via a cooperative research and development agreement. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum to discuss the research, testing needs, and state-of-the-art apparatuses involved in grid compliance testing of utility-scale wind turbine generators. This includes both dynamometer testing of wind turbine drivetrains ('ground testing') and field testing grid-connected wind turbines. Four sessions followed by discussions in which all attendees of the workshop were encouraged to participate comprised the workshop.

Wind turbine supply in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snodin, H.

2007-01-01

This study reported on wind turbine supplies to the Canadian market. The report was written to address concerns for Canada's supply outlook in the near future due to the booming wind energy market. Turbine shortages have arisen as a result of continued growth in both European and North American markets. Long lead-times on turbine orders are now increasing the pressure to lock in turbine supply during the initial phases of the development process. Future growth of the wind energy industry will be impacted if turbine supply difficulties continue to contribute to uncertainties in the development process. The report provided an overview of the North American and global wind energy markets, as well as a summary of telephone interviews conducted with turbine suppliers. The implications for the future of turbine supply to the Canadian market were also analyzed. It was concluded that policy-makers should focus on supporting the expansion of manufacturing facilities for small wind turbines and control infrastructure in Canada 7 refs., 3 figs

Model Predictive Control of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Lars Christian

Wind turbines play a major role in the transformation from a fossil fuel based energy production to a more sustainable production of energy. Total-cost-of-ownership is an important parameter when investors decide in which energy technology they should place their capital. Modern wind turbines...... the need for maintenance of the wind turbine. Either way, better total-cost-of-ownership for wind turbine operators can be achieved by improved control of the wind turbines. Wind turbine control can be improved in two ways, by improving the model on which the controller bases its design or by improving...

WindPACT Reference Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dykes, Katherine L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Rinker, Jennifer [Former National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) employee

2018-04-02

To fully understand how loads and turbine cost scale with turbine size, it is necessary to have identical turbine models that have been scaled to different rated powers. The report presents the WindPACT baseline models, which are a series of four baseline models that were designed to facilitate investigations into the scalings of loads and turbine cost with size. The models have four different rated powers (750 kW, 1.5 MW, 3.0 MW, and 5.0 MW), and each model was designed to its specified rated power using the same design methodology. The models were originally implemented in FAST_AD, the predecessor to NREL's open-source wind turbine simulator FAST, but have yet to be implemented in FAST. This report contains the specifications for all four WindPACT baseline models - including structural, aerodynamic, and control specifications - along with the inherent assumptions and equations that were used to calculate the model parameters. It is hoped that these baseline models will serve as extremely useful resources for investigations into the scalings of costs, loads, or optimization routines.

Proportional resonant individual pitch control for mitigation of wind turbines loads

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yunqian; Chen, Zhe; Cheng, Ming

2013-01-01

attenuation. The individual pitch control (IPC) is a promising way to reduce the wind turbine loads. This study presents a proportional resonant (PR) IPC, which does not need the measurement of blade azimuth angle and multiple complex Coleman transformations between rotational coordinate frame and stationary...... coordinate frame. The new strategy can attenuate the 1p and higher harmonics on the wind turbine blades as well as 3p on the hub without any filters. The wind turbine code fatigue, aerodynamics, structures and turbulence is applied to a doubly fed induction generator-based wind power generation system....... The simulations are performed on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1.5 MW upwind reference wind turbine model. The simulation results are presented and discussed to demonstrate the capability and effectiveness of the proposed PR IPC method....

Study on Actuator Line Modeling of Two NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine Wakes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ziying Yu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The wind turbine wakes impact the efficiency and lifespan of the wind farm. Therefore, to improve the wind plant performance, research on wind plant control is essential. The actuator line model (ALM is proposed to simulate the wind turbine efficiently. This research investigates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 Million Watts (NREL 5-MW wind turbine wakes with Open Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM using ALM. Firstly, a single NREL 5-MW turbine is simulated. The comparison of the power and thrust with Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence (FAST shows a good agreement below the rated wind speed. The information relating to wind turbine wakes is given in detail. The top working status is proved at the wind speed of 8 m/s and the downstream distance of more than 5 rotor diameters (5D. Secondly, another case with two NREL 5-MW wind turbines aligned is also carried out, in which 7D is validated as the optimum distance between the two turbines. The result also shows that the upstream wind turbine has an obvious influence on the downstream one.

Wind turbine noise diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richarz, W.; Richarz, H.

2009-01-01

This presentation proposed a self-consistent model for broad-band noise emitted from modern wind turbines. The simple source model was consistent with the physics of sound generation and considered the unique features of wind turbines. Although the acoustics of wind turbines are similar to those of conventional propellers, the dimensions of wind turbines pose unique challenges in diagnosing noise emission. The general features of the sound field were deduced. Source motion and source directivity appear to be responsible for amplitude variations. The amplitude modulation is likely to make wind-turbine noise more audible, and may be partly responsible for annoyance that has been reported in the literature. Acoustic array data suggests that broad-band noise is emitted predominantly during the downward sweep of each rotor blade. Source motion and source directivity account for the observed pattern. Rotor-tower interaction effects are of lesser importance. Predicted amplitude modulation ranges from 1 dB to 6dB. 2 refs., 9 figs.

Sandia Laboratories environment and safety programs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zak, B.D.; McGrath, P.E.; Trauth, C.A. Jr.

1975-01-01

Sandia, one of ERDA's largest laboratories, is primarily known for its extensive work in the nuclear weapons field. In recent years, however, Sandia's role has expanded to embrace sizeable programs in the energy, resource recovery, and the environment and safety fields. In this latter area, Sandia has programs which address nuclear, fossil fuel, and general environment and safety issues. Here we survey ongoing activities and describe in more detail aa few projects of particular interest. These range from a study of the impact of sealed disposal of radioactive wastes, through reactor safety and fossil fuel plume chemistry, to investigations of the composition and dynamics of the stratosphere

Probabilistic Design of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard

During the last decades, wind turbines have been continuously developed with the aim of maximizing the life cycle benefits (production of electricity) minus the costs of planning, materials, installation, operation & maintenance as well as possible failure. In order to continue this development...... turbines and the central topics considered are statistical load extrapolation of extreme loads during operation and reliability assessment of wind turbine blades. Wind turbines differ from most civil engineering structures by having a control system which highly influences the loading. In the literature......, methods for estimating the extreme load-effects on a wind turbine during operation, where the control system is active, have been proposed. But these methods and thereby the estimated loads are often subjected to a significant uncertainty which influences the reliability of the wind turbine...

Wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Cheney, Jr., Marvin C.

1982-01-01

A wind turbine of the type having an airfoil blade (15) mounted on a flexible beam (20) and a pitch governor (55) which selectively, torsionally twists the flexible beam in response to wind turbine speed thereby setting blade pitch, is provided with a limiter (85) which restricts unwanted pitch change at operating speeds due to torsional creep of the flexible beam. The limiter allows twisting of the beam by the governor under excessive wind velocity conditions to orient the blades in stall pitch positions, thereby preventing overspeed operation of the turbine. In the preferred embodiment, the pitch governor comprises a pendulum (65,70) which responds to changing rotor speed by pivotal movement, the limiter comprising a resilient member (90) which engages an end of the pendulum to restrict further movement thereof, and in turn restrict beam creep and unwanted blade pitch misadjustment.

New guidelines for wind turbine gearboxes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McNiff, B. [McNiff Light Industry, Blue Hill, ME (United States); Errichello, R. [GEARTECH, Townsend, MT (United States)

1997-12-31

The American Gear Manufacturers Association in cooperation with the American Wind Energy Association will soon be publishing AGMA/AWEA 921-A97 {open_quotes}Recommended Practices for Design and Specification of Gearboxes for Wind Turbine Generator Systems.{close_quotes} Much has been learned about the unique operation and loading of gearboxes in wind turbine applications since the burgeoning of the modern wind turbine industry in the early 1980`s. AGMA/AWEA 921-A97 documents this experience in a manner that provides valuable information to assist gear manufacturers and wind turbine designers, operators, and manufacturers in developing reliable wind turbine gearboxes. The document provides information on procurement specification development, wind turbine architecture, environmental considerations, and gearbox load determination, as well as the design, manufacturing, quality assurance, lubrication, operation and maintenance of wind turbine gearboxes. This paper presents the salient parts of the practices recommended in AGMA/AWEA 921-A97.

Next Generation Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheraghi, S. Hossein [Western New England Univ., Springfield, MA (United States); Madden, Frank [FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp., Waltham, MA (United States)

2012-09-01

The goal of this collaborative effort between Western New England University's College of Engineering and FloDesign Wind Turbine (FDWT) Corporation to wok on a novel areodynamic concept that could potentially lead to the next generation of wind turbines. Analytical studies and early scale model tests of FDWT's Mixer/Ejector Wind Turbine (MEWT) concept, which exploits jet-age advanced fluid dynamics, indicate that the concept has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electricity over conventional Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines while reducing land usage. This project involved the design, fabrication, and wind tunnel testing of components of MEWT to provide the research and engineering data necessary to validate the design iterations and optimize system performance. Based on these tests, a scale model prototype called Briza was designed, fabricated, installed and tested on a portable tower to investigate and improve the design system in real world conditions. The results of these scale prototype efforts were very promising and have contributed significantly to FDWT's ongoing development of a product scale wind turbine for deployment in multiple locations around the U.S. This research was mutually beneficial to Western New England University, FDWT, and the DOE by utilizing over 30 student interns and a number of faculty in all efforts. It brought real-world wind turbine experience into the classroom to further enhance the Green Engineering Program at WNEU. It also provided on-the-job training to many students, improving their future employment opportunities, while also providing valuable information to further advance FDWT's mixer-ejector wind turbine technology, creating opportunities for future project innovation and job creation.

Sandia National Laboratories 1979 environmental monitoring report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, T.N.

1980-04-01

Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque is located south of the city on two broad mesas. The local climate is arid continental. Radionuclides are released from five technical areas from the Laboratories' resarch activities. Sandia's environmental monitoring program searches for cesium-137, tritium, uranium, alpha emitters, and beta emitters in water, soil, air, and vegetation. No activity was found in public areas in excess of local background in 1979. The Albuquerque population receives only 0.076 person-rem (estimated) from airborne radioactive releases. While national security research is the laboratories' major responsibility, energy research is a major area of activity. Both these research areas cause radioactive releases

Critical experiments at Sandia National Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harms, G.A.; Ford, J.T.; Barber, A.D.

2011-01-01

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has conducted radiation effects testing for the Department of Energy (DOE) and other contractors supporting the DOE since the 1960's. Over this period, the research reactor facilities at Sandia have had a primary mission to provide appropriate nuclear radiation environments for radiation testing and qualification of electronic components and other devices. The current generation of reactors includes the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR), a water-moderated pool-type reactor, fueled by elements constructed from UO2-BeO ceramic fuel pellets, and the Sandia Pulse Reactor III (SPR-III), a bare metal fast burst reactor utilizing a uranium-molybdenum alloy fuel. The SPR-III is currently defueled. The SPR Facility (SPRF) has hosted a series of critical experiments. A purpose-built critical experiment was first operated at the SPRF in the late 1980's. This experiment, called the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Critical Experiment (CX), was designed to explore the reactor physics of a nuclear thermal rocket motor. This experiment was fueled with highly-enriched uranium carbide fuel in annular water-moderated fuel elements. The experiment program was completed and the fuel for the experiment was moved off-site. A second critical experiment, the Burnup Credit Critical Experiment (BUCCX) was operated at Sandia in 2002. The critical assembly for this experiment was based on the assembly used in the CX modified to accommodate low-enriched pin-type fuel in water moderator. This experiment was designed as a platform in which the reactivity effects of specific fission product poisons could be measured. Experiments were carried out on rhodium, an important fission product poison. The fuel and assembly hardware for the BUCCX remains at Sandia and is available for future experimentation. The critical experiment currently in operation at the SPRF is the Seven Percent Critical Experiment (7uPCX). This experiment is designed to provide benchmark

Critical experiments at Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Harms, G.A.; Ford, J.T.; Barber, A.D., E-mail: gaharms@sandia.gov [Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2011-07-01

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has conducted radiation effects testing for the Department of Energy (DOE) and other contractors supporting the DOE since the 1960's. Over this period, the research reactor facilities at Sandia have had a primary mission to provide appropriate nuclear radiation environments for radiation testing and qualification of electronic components and other devices. The current generation of reactors includes the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR), a water-moderated pool-type reactor, fueled by elements constructed from UO2-BeO ceramic fuel pellets, and the Sandia Pulse Reactor III (SPR-III), a bare metal fast burst reactor utilizing a uranium-molybdenum alloy fuel. The SPR-III is currently defueled. The SPR Facility (SPRF) has hosted a series of critical experiments. A purpose-built critical experiment was first operated at the SPRF in the late 1980's. This experiment, called the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Critical Experiment (CX), was designed to explore the reactor physics of a nuclear thermal rocket motor. This experiment was fueled with highly-enriched uranium carbide fuel in annular water-moderated fuel elements. The experiment program was completed and the fuel for the experiment was moved off-site. A second critical experiment, the Burnup Credit Critical Experiment (BUCCX) was operated at Sandia in 2002. The critical assembly for this experiment was based on the assembly used in the CX modified to accommodate low-enriched pin-type fuel in water moderator. This experiment was designed as a platform in which the reactivity effects of specific fission product poisons could be measured. Experiments were carried out on rhodium, an important fission product poison. The fuel and assembly hardware for the BUCCX remains at Sandia and is available for future experimentation. The critical experiment currently in operation at the SPRF is the Seven Percent Critical Experiment (7uPCX). This experiment is designed to provide

Small Wind Turbine Technology Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avia Aranda, F.; Cruz Cruz, I.

1999-01-01

The result of the study carried out under the scope of the ATYCA project Test Plant of Wind Systems for Isolated Applications, about the state of art of the small wind turbine technology (wind turbines with swept area smaller than 40 m 2 ) is presented. The study analyzes the collected information on 60 models of wind turbines from 23 manufacturers in the worldwide market. Data from Chinese manufacturers, that have a large participation in the total number of small wind turbines in operation, are not included, due to the unavailability of the technical information. (Author) 15 refs

Wind Turbine Converter Control Interaction with Complex Wind Farm Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kocewiak, Lukasz Hubert; Hjerrild, Jesper; Bak, Claus Leth

2013-01-01

. The same wind turbine converter control strategy is evaluated in two different wind farms. It is emphasised that the grid-side converter controller should be characterised by sufficient harmonic/noise rejection and adjusted depending on wind farms to which it is connected. Various stability indices......This study presents wind turbine converter stability analysis of wind farms in frequency domain. The interaction between the wind turbine control system and the wind farm structure in wind farms is deeply investigated. Two wind farms (i.e. Horns Rev II and Karnice) are taken into consideration...... in this study. It is shown that wind farm components, such as long high-voltage alternating current cables and park transformers, can introduce significant low-frequency series resonances seen from the wind turbine terminals that can affect wind turbine control system operation and overall wind farm stability...

Site environmental report for 2011. Sandia National Laboratories, California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

2012-05-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractoroperated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, manages and operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Site Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the site. This Site Environmental Report for 2011 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting (DOE 2011d). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2011. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Site Environmental Report for 2012 Sandia National Laboratories California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

2013-05-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, manages and operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Field Office administers the contract and oversees contractor operations at the site. This Site Environmental Report for 2012 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1B, Environment, Safety and Health Reporting (DOE 2011d). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2012. General site and environmental program information is also included.

Advanced Wind Turbine Program Next Generation Turbine Development Project: June 17, 1997--April 30, 2005

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

GE Wind Energy, LLC

2006-05-01

This document reports the technical results of the Next Generation Turbine Development Project conducted by GE Wind Energy LLC. This project is jointly funded by GE and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.The goal of this project is for DOE to assist the U.S. wind industry in exploring new concepts and applications of cutting-edge technology in pursuit of the specific objective of developing a wind turbine that can generate electricity at a levelized cost of energy of $0.025/kWh at sites with an average wind speed of 15 mph (at 10 m height).

Proposed Wind Turbine Aeroelasticity Studies Using Helicopter Systems Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Ladkany, Samaan G.

1998-01-01

Advanced systems for the analysis of rotary wing aeroelastic structures (helicopters) are being developed at NASA Ames by the Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Branch, ARA. The research has recently been extended to the study of wind turbines, used for electric power generation Wind turbines play an important role in Europe, Japan & many other countries because they are non polluting & use a renewable source of energy. European countries such as Holland, Norway & France have been the world leaders in the design & manufacture of wind turbines due to their historical experience of several centuries, in building complex wind mill structures, which were used in water pumping, grain grinding & for lumbering. Fossil fuel cost in Japan & in Europe is two to three times higher than in the USA due to very high import taxes. High fuel cost combined with substantial governmental subsidies, allow wind generated power to be competitive with the more traditional sources of power generation. In the USA, the use of wind energy has been limited mainly because power production from wind is twice as expensive as from other traditional sources. Studies conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) indicate that the main cost in the production of wind turbines is due to the materials & the labor intensive processes used in the construction of turbine structures. Thus, for the US to assume world leadership in wind power generation, new lightweight & consequently very flexible wind turbines, that could be economically mass produced, would have to be developed [4,5]. This effort, if successful, would result in great benefit to the US & the developing nations that suffer from overpopulation & a very high cost of energy.

Effect of blade flutter and electrical loading on small wind turbine noise

Science.gov (United States)

The effect of blade flutter and electrical loading on the noise level of two different size wind turbines was investigated at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory (CPRL) near Bushland, TX. Noise and performance data were collected on two blade designs tested on a wind turbine rated a...

Reliability assessment of Wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2015-01-01

Wind turbines can be considered as structures that are in between civil engineering structures and machines since they consist of structural components and many electrical and machine components together with a control system. Further, a wind turbine is not a one-of-a-kind structure...... but manufactured in series production based on many component tests, some prototype tests and zeroseries wind turbines. These characteristics influence the reliability assessment where focus in this paper is on the structural components. Levelized Cost Of Energy is very important for wind energy, especially when...... comparing to other energy sources. Therefore much focus is on cost reductions and improved reliability both for offshore and onshore wind turbines. The wind turbine components should be designed to have sufficient reliability level with respect to both extreme and fatigue loads but also not be too costly...

Floating wind turbine system

Science.gov (United States)

Viterna, Larry A. (Inventor)

2009-01-01

A floating wind turbine system with a tower structure that includes at least one stability arm extending therefrom and that is anchored to the sea floor with a rotatable position retention device that facilitates deep water installations. Variable buoyancy for the wind turbine system is provided by buoyancy chambers that are integral to the tower itself as well as the stability arm. Pumps are included for adjusting the buoyancy as an aid in system transport, installation, repair and removal. The wind turbine rotor is located downwind of the tower structure to allow the wind turbine to follow the wind direction without an active yaw drive system. The support tower and stability arm structure is designed to balance tension in the tether with buoyancy, gravity and wind forces in such a way that the top of the support tower leans downwind, providing a large clearance between the support tower and the rotor blade tips. This large clearance facilitates the use of articulated rotor hubs to reduced damaging structural dynamic loads. Major components of the turbine can be assembled at the shore and transported to an offshore installation site.

Calculation of transient potential rise on the wind turbine struck by lightning.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiaoqing, Zhang

2014-01-01

A circuit model is proposed in this paper for calculating the transient potential rise on the wind turbine struck by lightning. The model integrates the blade, sliding contact site, and tower and grounding system of the wind turbine into an equivalent circuit. The lightning current path from the attachment point to the ground can be fully described by the equivalent circuit. The transient potential responses are obtained in the different positions on the wind turbine by solving the circuit equations. In order to check the validity of the model, the laboratory measurement is made with a reduced-scale wind turbine. The measured potential waveform is compared with the calculated one and a better agreement is shown between them. The practical applicability of the model is also examined by a numerical example of a 2 MW Chinese-built wind turbine.

Dynamic wind turbine models in power system simulation tool DIgSILENT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, A.D.; Iov, F.; Soerensen, Poul.; Cutululis, N.; Jauch, C.; Blaabjerg, F.

2007-08-15

This report presents a collection of models and control strategies developed and implemented in the power system simulation tool PowerFactory DIgSILENT for different wind turbine concepts. It is the second edition of Risoe-R-1400(EN) and it gathers and describes a whole wind turbine model database built-op and developed during several national research projects, carried out at Risoe DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy and Aalborg University, in the period 2001-2007. The overall objective of these projects was to create a wind turbine model database able to support the analysis of the interaction between the mechanical structure of the wind turbine and the electrical grid during different operational modes. The report provides thus a description of the wind turbines modelling, both at a component level and at a system level. The report contains both the description of DIgSILENT built-in models for the electrical components of a grid connected wind turbine (e.g. induction generators, power converters, transformers) and the models developed by the user, in the dynamic simulation language DSL of DIgSILENT, for the non-electrical components of the wind turbine (wind model, aerodynamic model, mechanical model). The initialisation issues on the wind turbine models into the power system simulation are also presented. The main attention in the report is drawn to the modelling at the system level of the following wind turbine concepts: (1) Fixed speed active stall wind turbine concept (2) Variable speed doubly-fed induction generator wind turbine concept (3) Variable speed multi-pole permanent magnet synchronous generator wind turbine concept These wind turbine concept models can be used and even extended for the study of different aspects, e.g. the assessment of power quality, control strategies, connection of the wind turbine at different types of grid and storage systems. Different control strategies have been developed and implemented for these wind turbine

Maximizing Energy Capture of Fixed-Pitch Variable-Speed Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pierce, K.; Migliore, P.

2000-08-01

Field tests of a variable-speed, stall-regulated wind turbine were conducted at a US Department of Energy Laboratory. A variable-speed generating system, comprising a doubly-fed generator and series-resonant power converter, was installed on a 275-kW, downwind, two-blade wind turbine. Gearbox, generator, and converter efficiency were measured in the laboratory so that rotor aerodynamic efficiency could be determined from field measurement of generator power. The turbine was operated at several discrete rotational speeds to develop power curves for use in formulating variable-speed control strategies. Test results for fixed-speed and variable-speed operation are presented along with discussion and comparison of the variable-speed control methodologies. Where possible, comparisons between fixed-speed and variable-speed operation are shown.

CFD analysis of a Darrieus wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Niculescu, M. L.; Cojocaru, M. G.; Pricop, M. V.; Pepelea, D.; Dumitrache, A.; Crunteanu, D. E.

2017-07-01

The Darrieus wind turbine has some advantages over the horizontal-axis wind turbine. Firstly, its tip speed ratio is lower than that of the horizontal-axis wind turbine and, therefore, its noise is smaller, privileging their placement near populated areas. Secondly, the Darrieus wind turbine does needs no orientation mechanism with respect to wind direction in contrast to the horizontal-axis wind turbine. However, the efficiency of the Darrieus wind turbine is lower than that of the horizontal-axis wind turbine since its aerodynamics is much more complex. With the advances in computational fluids and computers, it is possible to simulate the Darrieus wind turbine more accurately to understand better its aerodynamics. For these reasons, the present papers deals with the computational aerodynamics of a Darrieus wind turbine applying the state of the art of CFD methods (anisotropic turbulence models, transition from laminar to turbulent, scale adaptive simulation) to better understand its unsteady behavior.

Environmental monitoring report: Sandia Laboratories, 1976

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, T.N.

1977-04-01

Water and vegetation are monitored to determine Sandia Laboratories impact on the surrounding environment. Nonradioactive pollutants released are reported. Radioactive effluents are also reported and their person-rem contribution to the Albuquerque population is calculated. The environmental monitoring for calendar year 1976 shows that concentrations of radioactive materials in the Albuquerque area are typical of natural background for the area. An exception is a single onsite location where slightly abnormal uranium concentrations are expected. An estimated 0.044 person-rem Albuquerque area (80 km radius) population dose commitment results from calculated Sandia Laboratories releases. Over the same area 57,000 person-rem is accumulated from natural background. There were no measurable offsite radioactive effluent releases in CY 1976

RBI Optimization of Offshore Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ramírez, José G. Rangel; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2009-01-01

methods for oil & gas installations, a framework for optimal inspection and maintenance planning of offshore wind turbines is presented. Special aspects for offshore wind turbines considered are the fatigue loading characteristics where usually the wind loading are dominating the wave loading, wake......Wind turbines for electricity production have increased significantly the last years both in production capability and size. This development is expected to continue also in the coming years. Offshore wind turbines with an electricity production of 5-10 MW are planned. Typically, the wind turbine...... support structure is a steel structure consisting of a tower and a monopile, tripod or jacket type foundation. This paper considers aspects of inspection and maintenance planning of fatigue prone details in jacket and tripod type of wind turbine support structures. Based on risk-based inspection planning...

Wind Climate Parameters for Wind Turbine Fatigue Load Assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Svenningsen, Lasse; Moser, Wolfgang

2016-01-01

Site-specific assessment of wind turbine design requires verification that the individual wind turbine components can survive the site-specific wind climate. The wind turbine design standard, IEC 61400-1 (third edition), describes how this should be done using a simplified, equivalent wind climate...... climate required by the current design standard by comparing damage equivalent fatigue loads estimated based on wind climate parameters for each 10 min time-series with fatigue loads estimated based on the equivalent wind climate parameters. Wind measurements from Boulder, CO, in the United States...

European wind turbine catalogue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1994-01-01

The THERMIE European Community programme is designed to promote the greater use of European technology and this catalogue contributes to the fulfillment of this aim by dissemination of information on 50 wind turbines from 30 manufacturers. These turbines are produced in Europe and are commercially available. The manufacturers presented produce and sell grid-connected turbines which have been officially approved in countries where this approval is acquired, however some of the wind turbines included in the catalogue have not been regarded as fully commercially available at the time of going to print. The entries, which are illustrated by colour photographs, give company profiles, concept descriptions, measured power curves, prices, and information on design and dimension, safety systems, stage of development, special characteristics, annual energy production, and noise pollution. Lists are given of wind turbine manufacturers and agents and of consultants and developers in the wind energy sector. Exchange rates used in the conversion of the prices of wind turbines are also given. Information can be found on the OPET network (organizations recognised by the European Commission as an Organization for the Promotion of Energy Technologies (OPET)). An article describes the development of the wind power industry during the last 10-15 years and another article on certification aims to give an overview of the most well-known and acknowledged type approvals currently issued in Europe. (AB)

Energy technologies at Sandia National Laboratories: Past, Present, Future

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1989-08-01

We at Sandia first became involved with developing energy technology when the nation initiated its push toward energy independence in the early 1970s. That involvement continues to be strong. In shaping Sandia's energy programs for the 1990s, we will build on our track record from the 70s and 80s, a record outlined in this publication. It contains reprints of three issues of Sandia's Lab News that were devoted to our non-nuclear energy programs. Together, they summarize the history, current activities, and future of Sandia's diverse energy concerns; hence my desire to see them in one volume. Written in the fall of 1988, the articles cover Sandia's extremely broad range of energy technologies -- coal, oil and gas, geothermal, solar thermal, photovoltaics, wind, rechargeable batteries, and combustion.

Safety and Function Test Report for the Viryd CS8 Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roadman, J.; Murphy, M.; van Dam, J.

2013-10-01

This test was conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Independent Testing project. This project was established to help reduce the barriers of wind energy expansion by providing independent testing results for small turbines. Several turbines were selected for testing at the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as a part of the Small Wind Turbine Independent Testing project. Safety and function testing is one of up to five tests that may be performed on the turbines. Other tests include duration, power performance, acoustic noise, and power quality. Viryd Technologies, Inc. of Austin, Texas, was the recipient of the DOE grant and provided the turbine for testing.

Sandia National Laboratories Institutional Plan: FY 1999-2004

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garber, D.P.

1999-01-06

This Institutional Plan is the most comprehensive yearly "snapshot" available of Sandia National Laboratories' major programs, facilities, human resources, and budget. The document also includes overviews of our missions, organization, capabilities, planning functions, milestones, and accomplishments. The document's purpose is to provide the above information to the US Department of Energy, key congressional committees, Sandia management, and other present and potential customers. Chapter 2 presents information about Sandia's mission and summarizes our recent revision of Sandia's Strategic Plan. Chapter 3 presents an overview of Sandia's strategic objectives, chapter 4 lists laboratory goals and milestones for FY 1999, and chapter 5 presents our accomplishments during FY 1998. Chapters 3 through 5 are organized around our eight strategic objectives. The four primary objectives cover nuclear weapons responsibilities, nonproliferation and materials control, energy and critical infrastructures, and emerging national security threats. The major programmatic initiatives are presented in chapter 7. However, the programmatic descriptions in chapter 6 and the Associated funding tables in chapter 9 continue to be presented by DOE Budget and Reporting Code, as in previous Sandia institutional plans. As an aid to the reader, the four primary strategic objectives in chapter 3 are cross-referenced to the program information in chapter 6.

Noise from wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersen, B.; Larsen, P.

1993-01-01

Denmark has 3200 wind turbines with an installed maximum capacity of 418MW. The most important Danish research projects into wind turbine noise and the main results are listed. These date from 1983. Two comprehensive studies are currently in progress. The first is an analytical and empirical investigation of aerodynamic noise from wind turbine rotors and has so far dealt mainly with tip noise. The measurement method, using a hard board mounted microphone on the ground near the turbine, is described. Four different tip designs have been tested. Some examples of reference sound power level spectra for three of the designs are presented. During the past two years a computerbased data acquisition system has been used for real-time determination of sound power levels. The second study, which has just commenced, is on annoyance from wind turbine noise. It will include noise measurements, masking calculations and a social survey on the perceived nuisance. (UK)

NWTC Researchers Field-Test Advanced Control Turbine Systems to Increase Performance, Decrease Structural Loading of Wind Turbines and Plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2015-08-01

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) are studying component controls, including new advanced actuators and sensors, for both conventional turbines as well as wind plants. This research will help develop innovative control strategies that reduce aerodynamic structural loads and improve performance. Structural loads can cause damage that increase maintenance costs and shorten the life of a turbine or wind plant.

Wind Turbine Acoustics

Science.gov (United States)

Hubbard, Harvey H.; Shepherd, Kevin P.

2009-01-01

Wind turbine generators, ranging in size from a few kilowatts to several megawatts, are producing electricity both singly and in wind power stations that encompass hundreds of machines. Many installations are in uninhabited areas far from established residences, and therefore there are no apparent environmental impacts in terms of noise. There is, however, the potential for situations in which the radiated noise can be heard by residents of adjacent neighborhoods, particularly those neighborhoods with low ambient noise levels. A widely publicized incident of this nature occurred with the operation of the experimental Mod-1 2-MW wind turbine, which is described in detail elsewhere. Pioneering studies which were conducted at the Mod-1 site on the causes and remedies of noise from wind turbines form the foundation of much of the technology described in this chapter.

Nonlinear Dynamics of Wind Turbine Wings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jesper Winther

, large wind turbines become increasingly flexible and dynamically sensitive. This project focuses on the structural analysis of highly flexible wind turbine wings, and the aerodynamic loading of wind turbine wings under large changes in flow field due to elastic deformations and changing wind conditions....

Operation and control of large wind turbines and wind farms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soerensen, Poul; Hansen, Anca D.; Thomsen, Kenneth (and others)

2005-09-01

This report is the final report of a Danish research project 'Operation and control of large wind turbines and wind farms'. The objective of the project has been to analyse and assess operational strategies and possibilities for control of different types of wind turbines and different wind farm concepts. The potentials of optimising the lifetime/energy production ratio by means of using revised operational strategies for the individual wind turbines are investigated. Different strategies have been simulated, where the power production is decreased to an optimum when taking loads and actual price of produced electricity into account. Dynamic models and control strategies for the wind farms have also been developed, with the aim to optimise the operation of the wind farms considering participation in power system control of power (frequency) and reactive power (voltage), maximise power production, keep good power quality and limit mechanical loads and life time consumption. The project developed models for 3 different concepts for wind farms. Two of the concepts use active stall controlled wind turbines, one with AC connection and one with modern HVDC/VSC connection of the wind farm. The third concept is based on pitch controlled wind turbines using doubly fed induction generators. The models were applied to simulate the behaviour of the wind farm control when they were connected to a strong grid, and some initial simulations were performed to study the behaviour of the wind farms when it was isolated from the main grid on a local grid. Also the possibility to use the available information from the wind turbine controllers to predict the wind speed has been investigated. The main idea has been to predict the wind speed at a wind turbine using up-wind measurements of the wind speed in another wind turbine. (au)

Wind turbine technology principles and design

CERN Document Server

Adaramola, Muyiwa

2014-01-01

IntroductionPart I: AerodynamicsWind Turbine Blade Design; Peter J. Schubel and Richard J. CrossleyA Shrouded Wind Turbine Generating High Output Power with Wind-Lens Technology; Yuji Ohya and Takashi KarasudaniEcomoulding of Composite Wind Turbine Blades Using Green Manufacturing RTM Process; Brahim AttafAerodynamic Shape Optimization of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Using Differential Evolution; Travis J. Carrigan, Brian H. Dennis, Zhen X. Han, and Bo P. WangPart II: Generators and Gear Systems

Dynamic modeling and simulation of wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghafari Seadat, M.H.; Kheradmand Keysami, M.; Lari, H.R.

2002-01-01

Using wind energy for generating electricity in wind turbines is a good way for using renewable energies. It can also help to protect the environment. The main objective of this paper is dynamic modeling by energy method and simulation of a wind turbine aided by computer. In this paper, the equations of motion are extracted for simulating the system of wind turbine and then the behavior of the system become obvious by solving the equations. The turbine is considered with three blade rotor in wind direction, induced generator that is connected to the network and constant revolution for simulation of wind turbine. Every part of the wind turbine should be simulated for simulation of wind turbine. The main parts are blades, gearbox, shafts and generator

Wind Turbine Radar Cross Section

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Jenn

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The radar cross section (RCS of a wind turbine is a figure of merit for assessing its effect on the performance of electronic systems. In this paper, the fundamental equations for estimating the wind turbine clutter signal in radar and communication systems are presented. Methods of RCS prediction are summarized, citing their advantages and disadvantages. Bistatic and monostatic RCS patterns for two wind turbine configurations, a horizontal axis three-blade design and a vertical axis helical design, are shown. The unique electromagnetic scattering features, the effect of materials, and methods of mitigating wind turbine clutter are also discussed.

Wake losses optimization of offshore wind farms with moveable floating wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodrigues, S.F.; Teixeira Pinto, R.; Soleimanzadeh, M.; Bosman, Peter A.N.; Bauer, P.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • We present a layout optimization framework for wind farms with moveable turbines. • Using moveable wind turbines in optimized layouts maximizes energy production. • Turbine and wind farm designers should cooperate to optimize offshore wind projects. - Abstract: In the future, floating wind turbines could be used to harvest energy in deep offshore areas where higher wind mean speeds are observed. Currently, several floating turbine concepts are being designed and tested in small scale projects; in particular, one concept allows the turbine to move after installation. This article presents a novel layout optimization framework for wind farms composed of moveable floating turbines. The proposed framework uses an evolutionary optimization strategy in a nested configuration which simultaneously optimizes the anchoring locations and the wind turbine position within the mooring lines for each individual wind direction. The results show that maximum energy production is obtained when moveable wind turbines are deployed in an optimized layout. In conclusion, the framework represents a new design optimization tool for future offshore wind farms composed of moveable floating turbines

PREDICTION OF POWER GENERATION OF SMALL SCALE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE USING FUZZY LOGIC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Altab Hossain

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Renewable energy from the wind turbine has been focused for the alternative source of power generation due to the following advances of the of the wind turbine. Firstly, the wind turbine is highly efficient and eco-friendly. Secondly, the turbine has the ability to response for the changeable power generation based on the wind velocity and structural framework. However, the competitive efficiency of the wind turbine is necessary to successfully alternate the conventional power sources. The most relevant factor which affects the overall efficiency of the wind turbine is the wind velocity and the relative turbine dimensions. Artificial intelligence systems are widely used technology that can learn from examples and are able to deal with non-linear problems. Compared with traditional approach, fuzzy logic approach is more efficient for the representation, manipulation and utilization. Therefore, the primary purpose of this work was to investigate the relationship between wind turbine power generation and wind velocity, and to illustrate how fuzzy expert system might play an important role in prediction of wind turbine power generation. The main purpose of the measurement over the small scaled prototype vertical axis wind turbine for the wind velocity is to predict the performance of full scaled H-type vertical axis wind turbine. Prediction of power generation at the different wind velocities has been tested at the Thermal Laboratory of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL and results concerning the daily prediction have been obtained.

PREDICTION OF POWER GENERATION OF SMALL SCALE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE USING FUZZY LOGIC

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Altab Md. Hossain

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Renewable energy from the wind turbine has been focused for the alternative source of power generation due to the following advances of the of the wind turbine. Firstly, the wind turbine is highly efficient and eco-friendly. Secondly, the turbine has the ability to response for the changeable power generation based on the wind velocity and structural framework. However, the competitive efficiency of the wind turbine is necessary to successfully alternate the conventional power sources. The most relevant factor which affects the overall efficiency of the wind turbine is the wind velocity and the relative turbine dimensions. Artificial intelligence systems are widely used technology that can learn from examples and are able to deal with non-linear problems. Compared with traditional approach, fuzzy logic approach is more efficient for the representation, manipulation and utilization. Therefore, the primary purpose of this work was to investigate the relationship between wind turbine power generation and wind velocity, and to illustrate how fuzzy expert system might play an important role in prediction of wind turbine power generation. The main purpose of the measurement over the small scaled prototype vertical axis wind turbine for the wind velocity is to predict the performance of full scaled H-type vertical axis wind turbine. Prediction of power generation at the different wind velocities has been tested at the Thermal Laboratory of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL and results concerning the daily prediction have been obtained.

Sandia National Laboratories: Pathfinder Radar ISR and Synthetic Aperture

Science.gov (United States)

Radar (SAR) Systems Sandia National Laboratories Exceptional service in the national interest ; Technology Defense Systems & Assessments About Defense Systems & Assessments Program Areas Audit Sandia's Economic Impact Licensing & Technology Transfer Browse Technology Portfolios

Flicker Mitigation by Individual Pitch Control of Variable Speed Wind Turbines With DFIG

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhang, Yunqian; Chen, Zhe; Hu, Weihao

2014-01-01

generatorto investigate the flicker emission and mitigation issues. An individual pitch control (IPC) strategy is proposed to reduce the flicker emission at different wind speed conditions. The IPC scheme is proposed and the individual pitch controller is designed according to the generator active power...... and the azimuth angle of the wind turbine. The simulations are performed on the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 1.5-MW upwind reference wind turbine model. Simulation results show that damping the generator active power by IPC is an effective means for flicker mitigation of variable speed wind......Due to the wind speed variation, wind shear and tower shadow effects, grid connected wind turbines are the sources of power fluctuations which may produce flicker during continuous operation. This paper presents a model of an MW-level variable-speed wind turbine with a doubly fed induction...

Sandia National Laboratories: Working with Sandia: Procurement:

Science.gov (United States)

; Technology Defense Systems & Assessments About Defense Systems & Assessments Program Areas Audit Sandia's Economic Impact Licensing & Technology Transfer Browse Technology Portfolios Contract Audit Working with Sandia Construction and Facilities Sandia establishes contracts to support

The design of wind turbine for electrical power generation in Malaysian wind characteristics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abas Ab Wahab; Chong Wen Thong

2000-01-01

The paper describes the study of a wind turbine for electrical power generation in Malaysia wind characteristics. In this research, the wind turbine is designs based on the local wind characteristics and tries to avoid the problems faced in the past (turbine design, access, manpower and technical). The new wind turbine rotor design for a medium speed wind speed turbine utilises the concept of open-close type of horizontal axis (up-wind) wind turbine is intended to widen the optimum performance range for electrical generation in Malaysia wind characteristics. The wind turbine has been designed to cut-in at a lower speed, and to provide the rotation speed that high enough to run a generator. The analysis and design of new low speed wind turbine blades and open-close turbine rotor and prediction of turbine performance are being detailed in this paper. (Author)

Investigation of Wind Turbine Rotor Concepts for Offshore Wind Farms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ceyhan, Özlem; Grasso, Francesco

2014-01-01

Current plans in offshore wind energy developments call for further reduction of cost of energy. In order to contribute to this goal, several wind turbine rotor concepts have been investigated. Assuming the future offshore wind turbines will operate only in the offshore wind farms, the rotor concepts are not only evaluated for their stand-alone performances and their potential in reducing the loads, but also for their performance in an offshore wind farm. In order to do that, the 10MW reference wind turbine designed in Innwind.EU project is chosen as baseline. Several rotor parameters have been modified and their influences are investigated for offshore wind turbine design purposes. This investigation is carried out as a conceptual parametrical study. All concepts are evaluated numerically with BOT (Blade optimisation tool) software in wind turbine level and with Farmflow software in wind farm level for two wind farm layouts. At the end, all these concepts are compared with each other in terms of their advantages and disadvantages

Evaluation of different turbine concepts for wind power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Eriksson, Sandra; Bernhoff, Hans; Leijon, Mats [Swedish Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion, Division for Electricity and Lightning Research, Box 534, 751 21 Uppsala (Sweden)

2008-06-15

Every year the number of installed wind power plants in the world increases. The horizontal axis wind turbine is the most common type of turbine but there exist other types. Here, three different wind turbines are considered; the horizontal axis wind turbine and two different concepts of vertical axis wind turbines; the Darrieus turbine and the H-rotor. This paper aims at making a comparative study of these three different wind turbines from the most important aspects including structural dynamics, control systems, maintenance, manufacturing and electrical equipment. A case study is presented where three different turbines are compared to each other. Furthermore, a study of blade areas for different turbines is presented. The vertical axis wind turbine appears to be advantageous to the horizontal axis wind turbine in several aspects. (author)

1992 Environmental monitoring report, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Culp, T.; Cox, W.; Hwang, H.; Irwin, M.; Jones, A.; Matz, B.; Molley, K.; Rhodes, W.; Stermer, D.; Wolff, T.

1993-09-01

This 1992 report contains monitoring data from routine radiological and nonradiological environmental surveillance activities. summaries of significant environmental compliance programs in progress, such as National Environmental Policy Act documentation, environmental permits, envirorunental restoration, and various waste management programs for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are included. The maximum offsite dose impact was calculated to be 0.0034 millirem. The total population within a 50-mile radius of Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico received an estimated collective dose of 0.019 person-rem during 1992 from the laboratories' operations. As in the previous year, the 1992 operations at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico had no discernible impact on the general public or on the environment

Wind turbine optimal control during storms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petrović, V; Bottasso, C L

2014-01-01

This paper proposes a control algorithm that enables wind turbine operation in high winds. With this objective, an online optimization procedure is formulated that, based on the wind turbine state, estimates those extremal wind speed variations that would produce maximal allowable wind turbine loads. Optimization results are compared to the actual wind speed and, if there is a danger of excessive loading, the wind turbine power reference is adjusted to ensure that loads stay within allowed limits. This way, the machine can operate safely even above the cut-out wind speed, thereby realizing a soft envelope-protecting cut-out. The proposed control strategy is tested and verified using a high-fidelity aeroservoelastic simulation model

Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities: engineering analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundergan, C.D.

1975-12-01

This report characterizes the engineering analysis capabilities at Sandia Laboratories. Selected applications of these capabilities are presented to illustrate the extent to which they can be applied in research and development programs

Assessment and Optimization of Lidar Measurement Availability for Wind Turbine Control: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Davoust, S.; Jehu, A.; Bouillet, M.; Bardon, M.; Vercherin, B.; Scholbrock, A.; Fleming, P.; Wright, A.

2014-05-01

Turbine-mounted lidars provide preview measurements of the incoming wind field. By reducing loads on critical components and increasing the potential power extracted from the wind, the performance of wind turbine controllers can be improved [2]. As a result, integrating a light detection and ranging (lidar) system has the potential to lower the cost of wind energy. This paper presents an evaluation of turbine-mounted lidar availability. Availability is a metric which measures the proportion of time the lidar is producing controller-usable data, and is essential when a wind turbine controller relies on a lidar. To accomplish this, researchers from Avent Lidar Technology and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory first assessed and modeled the effect of extreme atmospheric events. This shows how a multirange lidar delivers measurements for a wide variety of conditions. Second, by using a theoretical approach and conducting an analysis of field feedback, we investigated the effects of the lidar setup on the wind turbine. This helps determine the optimal lidar mounting position at the back of the nacelle, and establishes a relationship between availability, turbine rpm, and lidar sampling time. Lastly, we considered the role of the wind field reconstruction strategies and the turbine controller on the definition and performance of a lidar's measurement availability.

Small Wind Turbine Installation Compatibility Demonstration Methodology

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-01

wind turbine (HAWT) and one 2.9-kW vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT), we planned to measure radar, acoustic and seismic, turbulence, bird and...non-issue for small turbines . The majority of studies of bat and bird interactions with wind turbines are for large turbines (BPA 2002; Whittam...et al. 2010). The majority of studies of bat and bird interactions with wind energy facil- ities are for utility-scale turbines (> 1 MW) with

Coupled Dynamic Modeling of Floating Wind Turbine Systems: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wayman, E. N.; Sclavounos, P. D.; Butterfield, S.; Jonkman, J.; Musial, W.

2006-03-01

This article presents a collaborative research program that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have undertaken to develop innovative and cost-effective floating and mooring systems for offshore wind turbines in water depths of 10-200 m. Methods for the coupled structural, hydrodynamic, and aerodynamic analysis of floating wind turbine systems are presented in the frequency domain. This analysis was conducted by coupling the aerodynamics and structural dynamics code FAST [4] developed at NREL with the wave load and response simulation code WAMIT (Wave Analysis at MIT) [15] developed at MIT. Analysis tools were developed to consider coupled interactions between the wind turbine and the floating system. These include the gyroscopic loads of the wind turbine rotor on the tower and floater, the aerodynamic damping introduced by the wind turbine rotor, the hydrodynamic damping introduced by wave-body interactions, and the hydrodynamic forces caused by wave excitation. Analyses were conducted for two floater concepts coupled with the NREL 5-MW Offshore Baseline wind turbine in water depths of 10-200 m: the MIT/NREL Shallow Drafted Barge (SDB) and the MIT/NREL Tension Leg Platform (TLP). These concepts were chosen to represent two different methods of achieving stability to identify differences in performance and cost of the different stability methods. The static and dynamic analyses of these structures evaluate the systems' responses to wave excitation at a range of frequencies, the systems' natural frequencies, and the standard deviations of the systems' motions in each degree of freedom in various wind and wave environments. This article in various wind and wave environments. This article explores the effects of coupling the wind turbine with the floating platform, the effects of water depth, and the effects of wind speed on the systems' performance. An economic feasibility analysis of

Wind Tunnel Aeroacoustic Tests of Six Airfoils for Use on Small Wind Turbines; Period of Performance: August 23, 2002 through March 31, 2004

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oerlemans, S.

2004-08-01

The U.S. Department of Energy, working through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is engaged in a comprehensive research effort to improve our understanding of wind turbine aeroacoustics. Quiet wind turbines are an inducement to widespread deployment, so the goal of NREL's aeroacoustic research is to develop tools that the U.S. wind industry can use in developing and deploying highly efficient, quiet wind turbines at low wind speed sites. NREL's National Wind Technology Center is implementing a multifaceted approach that includes wind tunnel tests, field tests, and theoretical analyses in direct support of low wind speed turbine development by its industry partners. To that end, wind tunnel aerodynamic tests and aeroacoustic tests have been performed on six airfoils that are candidates for use on small wind turbines. Results are documented in this report.

Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities: systems analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lundergan, C.D.

1975-06-01

The systems analysis capabilities at Sandia Laboratories are summarized. Selected applications of these capabilities are presented to illustrate the extent to which they can be applied in research and development programs. (U.S.)

Megawatt wind turbines gaining momentum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oehlenschlaeger, K.; Madsen, B.T.

1996-01-01

Through the short history of the modern wind turbine, electric utilities have made it amply clear that they have held a preference for large scale wind turbines over smaller ones, which is why wind turbine builders through the years have made numerous attempts develop such machines - machines that would meet the technical, aesthetic and economic demands that a customer would require. Considerable effort was put into developing such wind turbines in the early 1980s. There was the U.S. Department of Energy's MOD 1-5 program, which ranged up to 3.2 MW, Denmark's Nibe A and B, 630 kW turbine and the 2 MW Tjaereborg machine, Sweden's Naesudden, 3 MW, and Germany's Growian, 3 MW. Most of these were dismal failures, though some did show the potential of MW technology. (au)

Wind Turbine With Concentric Ducts

Science.gov (United States)

Muhonen, A. J.

1983-01-01

Wind Turbine device is relatively compact and efficient. Converging inner and outer ducts increase pressure difference across blades of wind turbine. Turbine shaft drives alternator housed inside exit cone. Suitable for installation on such existing structures as water towers, barns, houses, and commercial buildings.

Grid support capabilities of wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michalke, Gabriele; Hansen, Anca Daniela

2013-01-01

Wind power has gained a significant penetration level in several power systems all over the world. Due to this reason modern wind turbines are requested to contribute to power system support. Power system operators have thus introduced grid codes, which specify a set of requirements for wind...... turbines, such as fault ride-through and reactive power supply during voltage sags. To date different wind turbine concepts exist on the market comprising different control features in order to provide ancillary services to the power system. In the first place the present chapter emphasizes the most...... important issues related to wind power grid integration. Then different wind turbine concepts are characterized and their grid support capabilities are analysed and compared. Simulation cases are presented in which the respective wind turbine concepts are subjected to a voltage dip specified in a grid code....

Wind Turbine Acoustic Day 2018

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mogensen, Jesper; Søndergaard, Bo; Hünerbein, Sabine Von

The bi-annual event entitled Wind Turbine Acoustic Day dealing with wind turbine noise issues organized by DTU Wind Energy took place on May, 17th 2018 as its third edition. The abstracts and slides for the presentations are reported....

Structural Reliability Aspects in Design of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2007-01-01

Reliability assessment, optimal design and optimal operation and maintenance of wind turbines are an area of significant interest for the fast growing wind turbine industry for sustainable production of energy. Offshore wind turbines in wind farms give special problems due to wake effects inside...... the farm. Reliability analysis and optimization of wind turbines require that the special conditions for wind turbine operation are taken into account. Control of the blades implies load reductions for large wind speeds and parking for high wind speeds. In this paper basic structural failure modes for wind...... turbines are described. Further, aspects are presented related to reliability-based optimization of wind turbines, assessment of optimal reliability level and operation and maintenance....

Wind Predictions Upstream Wind Turbines from a LiDAR Database

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Soledad Le Clainche

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This article presents a new method to predict the wind velocity upstream a horizontal axis wind turbine from a set of light detection and ranging (LiDAR measurements. The method uses higher order dynamic mode decomposition (HODMD to construct a reduced order model (ROM that can be extrapolated in space. LiDAR measurements have been carried out upstream a wind turbine at six different planes perpendicular to the wind turbine axis. This new HODMD-based ROM predicts with high accuracy the wind velocity during a timespan of 24 h in a plane of measurements that is more than 225 m far away from the wind turbine. Moreover, the technique introduced is general and obtained with an almost negligible computational cost. This fact makes it possible to extend its application to both vertical axis wind turbines and real-time operation.

Sandia National Laboratories: Working with Sandia

Science.gov (United States)

Defense Systems & Assessments About Defense Systems & Assessments Program Areas Accomplishments Audit Sandia's Economic Impact Licensing & Technology Transfer Browse Technology Portfolios /Facilities Contract Audit Technology Partnerships Sandia collaborates with industry, small businesses

Environmental monitoring report, Sandia Laboratories 1975

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holley, W.L.; Simmons, T.N.

1976-04-01

Water and vegetation are monitored to determine Sandia Laboratories impact on the surrounding environment. Nonradioactive pollutants released are reported. Radioactive effluents are also reported and their person-rem contribution to the population is calculated

Examination of forced unsteady separated flow fields on a rotating wind turbine blade

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huyer, S [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (US)

1993-04-01

The wind turbine industry faces many problems regarding the construction of efficient and predictable wind turbine machines. Steady state, two-dimensional wind tunnel data are generally used to predict aerodynamic loads on wind turbine blades. Preliminary experimental evidence indicates that some of the underlying fluid dynamic phenomena could be attributed to dynamic stall, or more specifically to generation of forced unsteady separated flow fields. A collaborative research effort between the University of Colorado and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was conducted to systematically categorize the local and global effects of three- dimensional forced unsteady flow fields.

Type IV Wind Turbine Model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anca Daniela; Margaris, Ioannis D.

. In the project, this wind turbine model will be further incorporated in a wind power plant model together with the implementation in the wind power control level of the new control functionalities (inertial response, synchronising power and power system damping). For this purpose an aggregate wind power plant......This document is created as part of the EaseWind project. The goal of this project is to develop and investigate new control features for primary response provided by wind power plants. New control features as inertial response, synchronising power and power system damping are of interest to EaseWind...... project to be incorporated in the wind power plant level. This document describes the Type 4 wind turbine simulation model, implemented in the EaseWind project. The implemented wind turbine model is one of the initial necessary steps toward integrating new control services in the wind power plant level...

Vertical axis wind turbines : past initiatives and future prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Islam, M.; Fartaj, A.; Ting, D. [Windsor Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering

2003-08-01

Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) are the two categories of modern wind turbines used for producing electricity and pumping water. While their popularity declined in the 1970s and 1980s to more economical fossil fuel resources, many countries have expressed a renewed interest in wind power in response to environmental concerns and energy security. Renewable energy sources supply more than 14 per cent of the total global energy demand, and wind energy plays the biggest role. In 2002, more than $7 billion was invested in wind technology. Canada has been a leader in VAWT technology. In 1966, Engineers at the Low Speed Aerodynamics Laboratory of the National Research Council devised a VAWT configuration with non-adjustable hoop-shaped airfoils that had greater efficiency that conventional high-solidity VAWT. In the early 1980s, a multi-megawatt VAWT was built in Quebec under the auspices of the EOLE project. The EOLE is the largest VAWT in the world. In 1980, Canada's national Atlantic Wind Test Site was developed for the purpose of testing and developing wind technology. Research at this facility has focused on dynamically soft Darrieus rotors, a concept which can reduce structural loads. Early development has shown that although VAWT is slightly less efficient than HAWT, it can be built larger and more cost effectively. This paper presents the outstanding features of VAWT products including the Solwind SW 10/4800 series VAWT, the Chinook 2000 wind turbine, the Ropatec Windrotor, the Windside Turbine, the VAWTEX, the Windstar VAWT, and Windtec. 19 refs., 13 figs.

Cost optimization of wind turbines for large-scale offshore wind farms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuglsang, P.; Thomsen, K.

1998-02-01

This report contains a preliminary investigation of site specific design of off-shore wind turbines for a large off-shore wind farm project at Roedsand that is currently being proposed by ELKRAFT/SEAS. The results were found using a design tool for wind turbines that involve numerical optimization and aeroelastic calculations of response. The wind climate was modeled in detail and a cost function was used to estimate costs from manufacture and installation. Cost of energy is higher for off-shore installations. A comparison of an off-shore wind farm site with a typical stand alone on-shore site showed an increase of the annual production of 28% due to the difference in wind climate. Extreme loads and blade fatigue loads were nearly identical, however,fatigue loads on other main components increased significantly. Optimizations were carried out to find the optimum overall off-shore wind turbine design. A wind turbine for the off-shore wind farm should be different compared with a stand-alone on-shore wind turbine. The overall design changed were increased swept area and rated power combined with reduced rotor speed and tower height. Cost was reduced by 12% for the final 5D/14D off-shore wind turbine from 0.306 DKr/kWh to 0.270 DKr/kWh. These figures include capital costs from manufacture and installation but not on-going costs from maintenance. These results make off-shore wind farms more competitive and comparable to the reference on-shore stand-alone wind turbine. A corresponding reduction of cost of energy could not be found for the stand alone on-shore wind turbine. Furthermore the fatigue loads on wind turbines in on-shore wind farms will increase and cost of energy will increase in favor of off-shore wind farms. (au) EFP-95; EU-JOULE-3; 21 tabs., 7 ills., 8 refs

Wind power production: from the characterisation of the wind resource to wind turbine technologies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beslin, Guy; Multon, Bernard

2016-01-01

Illustrated by graphs and tables, this article first describes the various factors and means related to the assessment of wind resource in the World, in Europe, and the factors which characterize a local wind resource. In this last respect, the authors indicate how local topography is taken into account to calculate wind speed, how time variations are taken into account (at the yearly, seasonal or daily level), the different methods used to model a local wind resource, how to assess the power recoverable by a wind turbine with horizontal axis (notion of Betz limit). In the second part, the authors present the different wind turbines, their benefits and drawbacks: vertical axis, horizontal axis (examples of a Danish-type wind turbine, of wind turbines designed for extreme conditions). Then, they address the technology of big wind turbines: evolution of technology and of commercial offer, aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine and benefit of a varying speed (technological solutions, importance of the electric generator). They describe how to choose a wind turbine, how product lines are organised, how the power curve and energy capacity are determined. The issue of integration of wind energy into the power system is then addressed. The next part addressed the economy of wind energy production (annualized production cost, order of magnitude of wind electric power production cost). Future trends are discussed and offshore wind energy production is briefly addressed

Controls of Hydraulic Wind Turbine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhang Yin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper a hydraulic wind turbine generator system was proposed based on analysis the current wind turbines technologies. The construction and principles were introduced. The mathematical model was verified using MATLAB and AMsim. A displacement closed loop of swash plate of motor and a speed closed loop of generator were setup, a PID control is introduced to maintain a constant speed and fixed frequency at wind turbine generator. Simulation and experiment demonstrated that the system can connect grid to generate electric and enhance reliability. The control system demonstrates a high performance speed regulation and effectiveness. The results are great significant to design a new type hydraulic wind turbine system.

Probabilistic Design of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Toft, H.S.

2010-01-01

Probabilistic design of wind turbines requires definition of the structural elements to be included in the probabilistic basis: e.g., blades, tower, foundation; identification of important failure modes; careful stochastic modeling of the uncertain parameters; recommendations for target reliability....... It is described how uncertainties in wind turbine design related to computational models, statistical data from test specimens, results from a few full-scale tests and from prototype wind turbines can be accounted for using the Maximum Likelihood Method and a Bayesian approach. Assessment of the optimal...... reliability level by cost-benefit optimization is illustrated by an offshore wind turbine example. Uncertainty modeling is illustrated by an example where physical, statistical and model uncertainties are estimated....

Wind Turbine Generator System Safety and Function Test Report for the Entegrity EW50 Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, J.; Huskey, A.; Jager, D.; Hur, J.

2012-11-01

This report summarizes the results of a safety and function test that NREL conducted on the Entegrity EW50 wind turbine. This test was conducted in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commissions' (IEC) standard, Wind Turbine Generator System Part 2: Design requirements for small wind turbines, IEC 61400-2 Ed.2.0, 2006-03.

Lightning protection of wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Soerensen, T; Brask, M H [DEFU (Denmark); Jensen, F V; Raben, N [SEAS (Denmark); Saxov, J [Nordjyllandsvaerket (Denmark); Nielsen, L [Vestkraft (Denmark); Soerensen, P E [Risoe National Lab. (Denmark)

1999-03-01

Lightning damage to wind turbines is a serious problem for Danish power companies, who have experienced some cases with very costly lightning damage and a large number of cases with minor damage. The most costly cases include one catastrophic damage to an entire wind turbine, and several cases of destruction of blades, main bearings, generators and control systems. Over the years there have been several hundreds of cases with minor damage - typically damage and interruptions of the control and communication systems, or the power systems. The Danish power companies anticipate that the lightning threat will be even bigger for the large off-shore wind turbine installations that are currently being planned in Denmark. Furthermore, it is known from the off-shore wind turbines at Vindeby in Denmark that the costs of inspection and particularly repair work must be expected to be much higher off-shore as compared to wind turbines on land. These considerations was the background for a two year project concerned with investigation of lighting damages and with the formulation of a DEFU Recommendation for lightning protection of wind turbines, which was published in January 1999. The project was funded by the Danish power companies Elsam, Eltra, Elkraft and by DEFU. (au)

Advances in wind turbine blade design and materials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wind energy is gaining critical ground in the area of renewable energy, with wind energy being predicted to provide up to 8% of the world’s consumption of electricity by 2021. Advances in wind turbine blade design and materials reviews the design and functionality of wind turbine rotor blades...... as well as the requirements and challenges for composite materials used in both current and future designs of wind turbine blades. Part one outlines the challenges and developments in wind turbine blade design, including aerodynamic and aeroelastic design features, fatigue loads on wind turbine blades......, and characteristics of wind turbine blade airfoils. Part two discusses the fatigue behavior of composite wind turbine blades, including the micromechanical modelling and fatigue life prediction of wind turbine blade composite materials, and the effects of resin and reinforcement variations on the fatigue resistance...

Wind turbine improvements by wind-lidar-based preview and control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkelsen, Torben

2014-01-01

Wind turbines equipped with laser prevision hold potential for up to 6+ years lifetime extension. Forward looking wind lidars integrated within operational wind turbines providing feed-forward control can reduce the daily operation loads. The turbine lifetime may in this way be extended by up to 30...

Summary of Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-05-01

The technical capabilities of Sandia Laboratories are detailed in a series of companion reports. In this summary the use of the capabilities in technical programs is outlined and the capabilities are summarized. 25 figures, 3 tables

Impacts of Providing Inertial Response on Dynamic Loads of Wind Turbine Drivetrains: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Girsang, I. P.; Dhupia, J.; Singh, M.; Gevorgian, V.; Muljadi, E.; Jonkman, J.

2014-09-01

There has been growing demand from the power industry for wind power plants to support power system operations. One such requirement is for wind turbines to provide ancillary services in the form of inertial response. When the grid frequency drops, it is essential for wind turbine generators (WTGs) to inject kinetic energy stored in their inertia into the grid to help arrest the frequency decline. However, the impacts of inertial response on the structural loads of the wind turbine have not been given much attention. To bridge this gap, this paper utilizes a holistic model for both fixed-speed and variable-speed WTGs by integrating the aeroelastic wind turbine model in FAST, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with the electromechanical drivetrain model in SimDriveline and SimPowerSystems.

Wind turbines fundamentals, technologies, application, economics

CERN Document Server

Hau, Erich

2013-01-01

"Wind Turbines" addresses all those professionally involved in research, development, manufacture and operation of wind turbines. It provides a cross-disciplinary overview of modern wind turbine technology and an orientation in the associated technical, economic and environmental fields.  In its revised third edition, special emphasis has been given to the latest trends in wind turbine technology and design, such as gearless drive train concepts, as well as on new fields of application, in particular the offshore utilisation of wind energy. The author has gained experience over decades designing wind energy converters with a major industrial manufacturer and, more recently, in technical consulting and in the planning of large wind park installations, with special attention to economics.

Small power wind turbine (Type DARRIEUS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcel STERE

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This presentation focuses on the calculation for small vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT for an urban application. The fixed-pitch straight – bladed vertical axis wind turbine (SB-VAWT is one of the simplest types of wind turbine and accepts wind from any angle (no yaw system. This turbine is useful for moderate wind speeds (3 - 6 m/s. A case study is presented based upon the use of well documented symmetrical NACA 0012 turbine blade profile. We describe a solution for VAWT. To perform a linear static analysis in the structure, the commercial finite element analysis code ANSYS is used because of its flexibility for handling information in files written in a more or less free format.

The evolution of Interior Intrusion Detection Technology at Sandia National Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graham, R.H.; Workhoven, R.M.

1987-07-01

Interior Intrusion Detection Technology began at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in 1975 as part of the Fixed Facilities Physical Protection Research and Development program sponsored by the US Department of Energy in connection with their nuclear safeguards effort. This paper describes the evolution of Interior Intrusion Detection Technology at Sandia National Laboratories from the beginning of the Interior Sensor Laboratory to the present. This Laboratory was established in 1976 to evaluate commercial interior intrusion sensors and to assist in site-specific intrusion detection system designs. Examples of special test techniques and new test equipment that were developed at the Lab are presented, including the Sandia Intruder Motion Simulator (SIMS), the Sensor and Environment Monitor (SEM), and the Sandia Interior Robot (SIR). We also discuss new sensors and unique sensor combinations developed when commercial sensors were unavailable and the future application of expert systems

Noise from wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersen, B.; Jakobsen, J.

1992-11-01

Based on a previous project concerning the calculation of the amount of noise emanating from wind turbine arrays, this one examines the subject further by investigating whether there could be significant differences in the amount of noise made by individual wind turbines in an array, and whether the noise is transmitted in varying directions - so that when it is carried in the same direction as the wind blows it would appear to be louder. The aim was also to determine whether the previously used method of calculation lacked precision. It was found that differences in noise niveaux related to individual wind turbines were insignificant and that noise was not so loud when it was not borne in the direction of the wind. It was necessary to change the method of calculation as reckoning should include the influence of the terrain, wind velocity and distance. The measuring and calculation methods are exemplified and the resulting measurements are presented in detail. (AB)

Wind speed reductions by large-scale wind turbine deployments lower turbine efficiencies and set low wind power potentials

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Lee; Kleidon, Axel

2017-04-01

Wind turbines generate electricity by removing kinetic energy from the atmosphere. Large numbers of wind turbines are likely to reduce wind speeds, which lowers estimates of electricity generation from what would be presumed from unaffected conditions. Here, we test how well wind power potentials that account for this effect can be estimated without explicitly simulating atmospheric dynamics. We first use simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) that explicitly simulates the effects of wind turbines to derive wind power limits (GCM estimate), and compare them to a simple approach derived from the climatological conditions without turbines [vertical kinetic energy (VKE) estimate]. On land, we find strong agreement between the VKE and GCM estimates with respect to electricity generation rates (0.32 and 0.37 We m-2) and wind speed reductions by 42 and 44%. Over ocean, the GCM estimate is about twice the VKE estimate (0.59 and 0.29 We m-2) and yet with comparable wind speed reductions (50 and 42%). We then show that this bias can be corrected by modifying the downward momentum flux to the surface. Thus, large-scale limits to wind power can be derived from climatological conditions without explicitly simulating atmospheric dynamics. Consistent with the GCM simulations, the approach estimates that only comparatively few land areas are suitable to generate more than 1 We m-2 of electricity and that larger deployment scales are likely to reduce the expected electricity generation rate of each turbine. We conclude that these atmospheric effects are relevant for planning the future expansion of wind power.

On the Fatigue Analysis of Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sutherland, Herbert J.

1999-06-01

Modern wind turbines are fatigue critical machines that are typically used to produce electrical power from the wind. Operational experiences with these large rotating machines indicated that their components (primarily blades and blade joints) were failing at unexpectedly high rates, which led the wind turbine community to develop fatigue analysis capabilities for wind turbines. Our ability to analyze the fatigue behavior of wind turbine components has matured to the point that the prediction of service lifetime is becoming an essential part of the design process. In this review paper, I summarize the technology and describe the ''best practices'' for the fatigue analysis of a wind turbine component. The paper focuses on U.S. technology, but cites European references that provide important insights into the fatigue analysis of wind turbines.

Market for wind turbines in italy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

Wind power utilization in Italy has not been very popular until the privatization of the ENEL and introduction of subsidies for private electricity producers. The greatest interest is concentrated around large wind turbines. Therefore the Danish manufacturers with know-how within large wind turbines can establish themselves on the Italian market. Cooperation with one of the four local wind turbine manufacturers is advisable. (EG)

Wind lens technology and its application to wind and water turbine and beyond

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ohya Yuji

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Wind lens is a new type of wind power system consisting of a simple brimmed ring structure that surrounds the rotor causing greater wind to pass through the turbine. As a consequence, the turbine's efficiency of capturing energy from the wind gets dramatically increased. A Wind lens turbine can generate 2–5 times the power of an existing wind turbine given at the same rotor diameter and incoming wind speed. This fluid dynamical effect is also effective in the water. We have developed 1–3 kW Wind lens turbines and a 100 kW Wind lens turbine. In addition to the enhanced output power, Wind lens turbine is quiet. The technology is now used in an offshore experiment with a hexagonal float 18 meters in diameter set off the coast of Hakata Bay in Fukuoka City. Moreover, we are now pursuing larger size Wind lens turbines through multi-rotor design consisting of multiple Wind lens turbines in a same vertical plane to embody larger total power output.

Increasing power generation in horizontal axis wind turbines using optimized flow control

Science.gov (United States)

Cooney, John A., Jr.

In order to effectively realize future goals for wind energy, the efficiency of wind turbines must increase beyond existing technology. One direct method for achieving increased efficiency is by improving the individual power generation characteristics of horizontal axis wind turbines. The potential for additional improvement by traditional approaches is diminishing rapidly however. As a result, a research program was undertaken to assess the potential of using distributed flow control to increase power generation. The overall objective was the development of validated aerodynamic simulations and flow control approaches to improve wind turbine power generation characteristics. BEM analysis was conducted for a general set of wind turbine models encompassing last, current, and next generation designs. This analysis indicated that rotor lift control applied in Region II of the turbine power curve would produce a notable increase in annual power generated. This was achieved by optimizing induction factors along the rotor blade for maximum power generation. In order to demonstrate this approach and other advanced concepts, the University of Notre Dame established the Laboratory for Enhanced Wind Energy Design (eWiND). This initiative includes a fully instrumented meteorological tower and two pitch-controlled wind turbines. The wind turbines are representative in their design and operation to larger multi-megawatt turbines, but of a scale that allows rotors to be easily instrumented and replaced to explore new design concepts. Baseline data detailing typical site conditions and turbine operation is presented. To realize optimized performance, lift control systems were designed and evaluated in CFD simulations coupled with shape optimization tools. These were integrated into a systematic design methodology involving BEM simulations, CFD simulations and shape optimization, and selected experimental validation. To refine and illustrate the proposed design methodology, a

Alternative Design Study Report: WindPACT Advanced Wind Turbine Drive Train Designs Study; November 1, 2000 -- February 28, 2002

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Poore, R.; Lettenmaier, T.

2003-08-01

This report presents the Phase I results of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) WindPACT (Wind Partnership for Advanced Component Technologies) Advanced Wind Turbine Drive Train Designs Study. Global Energy Concepts, LLC performed this work under a subcontract with NREL. The purpose of the WindPACT project is to identify technology improvements that will enable the cost of energy (COE) from wind turbines to be reduced. Other parts of the WindPACT project have examined blade and logistics scaling, balance-of-station costs, and rotor design. This study was designed to investigate innovative drive train designs.

Noise annoyance from wind turbines a review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pedersen, Eja

2003-08-01

This study summarises present knowledge on noise perception and annoyances from wind turbines in areas were people live or spend recreation time. There are two main types of noise from a wind turbine: mechanical noise and aerodynamic noise. The aerodynamic noise emits from the rotor blades passing the air. It has a swishing character with a modulation that makes it noticeable from the background noise. This part of the wind turbine noise was found to be the most annoying. Field studies performed among people living in the vicinity of wind turbines showed that there was a correlation between sound pressure level and noise annoyance, but annoyance was also influenced by visual factors such as the attitude to wind turbines' impact on the landscape. Noise annoyance was found at lower sound pressure levels than in studies of annoyance from traffic noise. There is no scientific evidence that noise at levels created by wind turbines could cause health problems other than annoyance. No studies on noise from wind turbines in wilderness areas have been found, but the reaction to other noise sources such as aircraft have been studied. In recreational areas, the expectation of quietness is high among visitors, but wind turbines are, in contrary to aircraft, stationary and could be avoided by recreationists. The visual impact of wind turbines might though be the dominant source of annoyance. Regulations on noise from wind turbines are based on different principles. Some states, e.g. Denmark, have a special legislation concerning wind turbines, while others, like Sweden, have used recommendations originally developed for a different noise source. The noise level could either be absolute, as in Germany, or related to the background noise level as in France. This background noise level could be standardised, measured or related to wind speed

Vertical axis wind turbine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obretenov, V.; Tsalov, T.; Chakarov, T.

2012-01-01

In recent years, the interest in wind turbines with vertical axis noticeably increased. They have some important advantages: low cost, relatively simple structure, reliable packaging system of wind aggregate long period during which require no maintenance, low noise, independence of wind direction, etc.. The relatively low efficiency, however, makes them applicable mainly for small facilities. The work presents a methodology and software for approximately aerodynamic design of wind turbines of this type, and also analyzed the possibility of improving the efficiency of their workflow

Shear and Turbulence Estimates for Calculation of Wind Turbine Loads and Responses Under Hurricane Strength Winds

Science.gov (United States)

Kosovic, B.; Bryan, G. H.; Haupt, S. E.

2012-12-01

Schwartz et al. (2010) recently reported that the total gross energy-generating offshore wind resource in the United States in waters less than 30m deep is approximately 1000 GW. Estimated offshore generating capacity is thus equivalent to the current generating capacity in the United States. Offshore wind power can therefore play important role in electricity production in the United States. However, most of this resource is located along the East Coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico, areas frequently affected by tropical cyclones including hurricanes. Hurricane strength winds, associated shear and turbulence can affect performance and structural integrity of wind turbines. In a recent study Rose et al. (2012) attempted to estimate the risk to offshore wind turbines from hurricane strength winds over a lifetime of a wind farm (i.e. 20 years). According to Rose et al. turbine tower buckling has been observed in typhoons. They concluded that there is "substantial risk that Category 3 and higher hurricanes can destroy half or more of the turbines at some locations." More robust designs including appropriate controls can mitigate the risk of wind turbine damage. To develop such designs good estimates of turbine loads under hurricane strength winds are essential. We use output from a large-eddy simulation of a hurricane to estimate shear and turbulence intensity over first couple of hundred meters above sea surface. We compute power spectra of three velocity components at several distances from the eye of the hurricane. Based on these spectra analytical spectral forms are developed and included in TurbSim, a stochastic inflow turbulence code developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, http://wind.nrel.gov/designcodes/preprocessors/turbsim/). TurbSim provides a numerical simulation including bursts of coherent turbulence associated with organized turbulent structures. It can generate realistic flow conditions that an operating turbine

Sound wave contours around wind turbine arrays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Beek, A.; Van Blokland, G.J.

1993-02-01

Noise pollution is an important factor in selecting suitable sites for wind turbines in order to realize 1000 MW of wind power as planned by the Dutch government for the year 2000. Therefore an accurate assessment of wind turbine noise is important. The amount of noise pollution from a wind turbine depends on the wind conditions. An existing standard method to assess wind turbine noise is supplemented and adjusted. In the first part of the investigation the method was developed and applied for a solitary sound source. In the second part attention is paid to the use of the method for wind turbine arrays. It appears that the adjusted method results in a shift of the contours of the permitted noise level. In general the contours are 15-25% closer to the wind farm, which means that the minimal permitted distance between houses and wind turbine arrays can be reduced. 14 figs., 1 tab., 4 appendices, 7 refs

Introduction to wind turbine aerodynamics

CERN Document Server

Schaffarczyk, Alois Peter

2014-01-01

Wind-Turbine Aerodynamics is a self-contained textbook which shows how to come from the basics of fluid mechanics to modern wind turbine blade design. It presents a fundamentals of fluid dynamics and inflow conditions, and gives a extensive introduction into theories describing the aerodynamics of wind turbines. After introducing experiments the book applies the knowledge to explore the impact on blade design.The book is an introduction for professionals and students of very varying levels.

Cooperative wind turbine control for maximizing wind farm power using sequential convex programming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Jinkyoo; Law, Kincho H.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The continuous wake model describes well the wake profile behind a wind turbine. • The wind farm power function describes well the power production of a wind farm. • Cooperative control increases the wind farm power efficiency by 7.3% in average. • SCP can be employed to efficiently optimize the control actions of wind turbines. - Abstract: This paper describes the use of a cooperative wind farm control approach to improve the power production of a wind farm. The power production by a downstream wind turbine can decrease significantly due to reduced wind speed caused by the upstream wind turbines, thereby lowering the overall wind farm power production efficiency. In spite of the interactions among the wind turbines, the conventional (greedy) wind turbine control strategy tries to maximize the power of each individual wind turbine by controlling its yaw angle, its blade pitch angle and its generator torque. To maximize the overall wind farm power production while taking the wake interference into account, this study employs a cooperative control strategy. We first derive the wind farm power as a differentiable function of the control actions for the wind turbines in a wind farm. The wind farm power function is then maximized using sequential convex programming (SCP) to determine the optimum coordinated control actions for the wind turbines. Using an example wind farm site and available wind data, we show how the cooperative control strategy improves the power production of the wind farm

Meteorological Controls on Wind Turbine Wakes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barthelmie, Rebecca J.; Hansen, Kurt Schaldemose; Pryor, S.C.

2013-01-01

, modeling, and predicting this complex and interdependent system is therefore critical to understanding and modeling wind farm power losses due to wakes, and to optimizing wind farm layout. This paper quantifies the impact of these variables on the power loss due to wakes using data from the large offshore......The primary control on the magnitude of the power losses induced by wind turbine wakes in large wind farms is the hub-height wind speed via its link to the turbine thrust coefficient. Hence, at low to moderate wind speeds (between cut-in and rated turbine wind speeds) when the thrust coefficient...

Damping Wind and Wave Loads on a Floating Wind Turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Søren; Bak, Thomas; Knudsen, Torben

2013-01-01

Offshore wind energy capitalizes on the higher and less turbulent wind speeds at sea. To enable deployment of wind turbines in deep-water locations, structures are being explored, where wind turbines are placed on a floating platform. This combined structure presents a new control problem, due......, and we show the influence that both wind speed, wave frequencies and misalignment between wind and waves have on the system dynamics. A new control model is derived that extends standard turbine models to include the hydrodynamics, additional platform degrees of freedom, the platform mooring system...

The evolution of interior intrusion detection technology at Sandia National Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graham, R.H.; Workhoven, R.M.

1987-07-01

Interior Intrusion Detection Technology began at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in 1975 as part of the Fixed Facilities Physical Protection Research and Development program sponsored by the US Department of Energy in connection with their nuclear safeguards effort. This paper describes the evolution of Interior Intrusion Detection Technology at Sandia National Laboratories from the beginning of the Interior Sensor Laboratory to the present. This Laboratory was established in 1976 to evaluate commercial interior intrusion sensors and to assist in site-specific intrusion detection system designs. Examples of special test techniques and new test equipment that were developed at the Lab are presented, including the Sandia Intruder Motion Simulator (SIMS), the Sensor and Environment Monitor (SEM), and the Sandia Interior Robot (SIR). We also discuss new sensors and unique sensor combination developed when commercial sensors were unavailable and the future application of expert systems. 5 refs

The evolution of interior intrusion detection technology at Sandia National Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Graham, R.H.; Workhoven, R.M.

1987-01-01

Interior Intrusion Detection Technology began at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in 1975 as part of the Fixed Facilities Physical Protection Research and Development program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy in connection with their nuclear safeguards effort. This paper describes the evolution of Interior Intrusion Detection Technology at Sandia National Laboratories from the beginning of the Interior Sensor Laboratory to the present. This Laboratory was established in 1976 to evaluate commercial interior intrusion sensors and to assist in site-specific intrusion detection system designs. Examples of special test techniques and new test equipment that were developed at the Lab are presented, including the Sandia Intruder Motion Simulator (SIMS), the Sensor and Environment Monitor (SEM), and the Sandia Interior Robot (SIR). The authors also discuss new sensors and unique sensor combinations developed when commercial sensors were unavailable and the future application of expert systems

Smart Wind Turbine: Analysis and Autonomous Flap

OpenAIRE

Bernhammer, L.O.

2015-01-01

Wind turbines convert kinetic energy of the wind into electrical energy. Unfortunately, this process is everything but constant, as the wind source shows large fluctuations with high and low frequencies. This turbulence, together with the wind shear and yawed inflow, excites the turbine structure, thereby driving the loads and the design of turbines in general and blades in particular. In response to this, several control mechanisms have been applied to wind turbines since the generation of s...

Site-optimization of wind turbine generators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wolff, T.J. de; Thillerup, J. [Nordtank Energy Group, Richmond, VA (United States)

1997-12-31

The Danish Company Nordtank is one of the pioneers within the wind turbine industry. Since 1981 Nordtank has installed worldwide more than 2500 wind turbine generators with a total name plate capacity that is exceeding 450 MW. The opening up of new and widely divergent markets has demanded an extremely flexible approach towards wind turbine construction. The Nordtank product range has expanded considerable in recent years, with the main objective to develop wind energy conversion machines that can run profitable in any given case. This paper will describe site optimization of Nordtank wind turbines. Nordtank has developed a flexible design concept for its WTGs in the 500/750 kW range, in order to offer the optimal WTG solution for any given site and wind regime. Through this flexible design, the 500/750 turbine line can adjust the rotor diameter, tower height and many other components to optimally fit the turbine to each specific project. This design philosophy will be illustrated with some case histories of recently completed projects.

Materials for Wind Turbine Blades: An Overview

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mishnaevsky, Leon; Branner, Kim; Petersen, Helga Nørgaard

2017-01-01

A short overview of composite materials for wind turbine applications is presented here. Requirements toward the wind turbine materials, loads, as well as available materials are reviewed. Apart from the traditional composites for wind turbine blades (glass fibers/epoxy matrix composites), natural...... composites, hybrid and nanoengineered composites are discussed. Manufacturing technologies for wind turbine composites, as well their testing and modelling approaches are reviewed....

Materials for Wind Turbine Blades: An Overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Mishnaevsky, Leon; Branner, Kim; Petersen, Helga Nørgaard; Beauson, Justine; McGugan, Malcolm; Sørensen, Bent F

2017-11-09

A short overview of composite materials for wind turbine applications is presented here. Requirements toward the wind turbine materials, loads, as well as available materials are reviewed. Apart from the traditional composites for wind turbine blades (glass fibers/epoxy matrix composites), natural composites, hybrid and nanoengineered composites are discussed. Manufacturing technologies for wind turbine composites, as well their testing and modelling approaches are reviewed.

Wind Turbine Generator System Safety and Function Test Report for the Southwest Windpower H40 Wind Turbine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

van Dam, J.; Link, H.; Meadors, M.; Bianchi, J.

2002-06-01

The objective of this test was to evaluate the safety and function characteristics of the Whisper H40 wind turbine. The general requirements of wind turbine safety and function tests are defined in the IEC standard WT01. The testing was conducted in accordance with the National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) Quality Assurance System, including the NWTC Certification Team Certification Quality Manual and the NWTC Certification Team General Quality Manual for the Testing of Wind Turbines, as well as subordinate documents. This safety and function test was performed as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Field Verification Program for small wind turbines.

Sandia National Laboratories: Careers: Special Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Program Master's Fellowship Program Wounded Warrior Career Development Program Careers Special Programs Special career opportunities for select individuals Join Sandia's workforce while receiving support and Laboratories' Affirmative Action Plan. Learn more about MFP. Wounded Warrior Career Development Program U.S

Reliability Assessment Of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2014-01-01

Reduction of cost of energy for wind turbines are very important in order to make wind energy competitive compared to other energy sources. Therefore the turbine components should be designed to have sufficient reliability but also not be too costly (and safe). This paper presents models...... for uncertainty modeling and reliability assessment of especially the structural components such as tower, blades, substructure and foundation. But since the function of a wind turbine is highly dependent on many electrical and mechanical components as well as a control system also reliability aspects...... of these components are discussed and it is described how there reliability influences the reliability of the structural components. Two illustrative examples are presented considering uncertainty modeling, reliability assessment and calibration of partial safety factors for structural wind turbine components exposed...

Gone with the wind? The impact of wind turbines on tourism demand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Broekel, Tom; Alfken, Christoph

2015-01-01

While wind energy production is relatively free from environmental externalities such as air pollution, it is frequently considered to negatively impact landscapes' visual aesthetic values, thereby inducing negative effects on tourism demand. Existing evidence for Germany indeed points towards a negative relationship between tourism demand and wind turbine construction. However, the existing studies primarily rely on interview data and simple bivariate statistics. In contrast, we make use of secondary statistics on tourism and wind turbine locations at the level of German municipalities. Using spatial panel regression techniques, we confirm a negative relation between wind turbines around municipalities and tourism demand for municipalities not located near the coast. In the latter regions, the relation between wind turbines and tourism demand is more complex. - Highlights: • Comprehensive quantitative empirical study on wind turbines and tourism demand. • Consideration of wind turbines in vacation municipalities and in their geographic surroundings. • Novel data set on wind turbines and touristic demand in all German municipalities. • Application of spatial panel analysis in the context of tourism research. • Evidence for a negative relationship between wind turbines and tourism demand.

Prototype bucket foundation for wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ibsen, Lars Bo; Liingaard, Morten

The first full scale prototype bucket foundation for wind turbines has been installed in October 2002 at Aalborg University offshore test facility in Frederikshavn, Denmark. The suction caisson and the wind turbine have been equipped with an online monitoring system, consisting of 15 accelerometers...... and a real-time data-acquisition system. The report concerns the in service performance of the wind turbine, with focus on estimation of the natural frequencies of the structure/foundation. The natural frequencies are initially estimated by means of experimental Output-only Modal analysis. The experimental...... estimates are then compared with numerical simulations of the suction caisson foundation and the wind turbine. The numerical model consists of a finite element section for the wind turbine tower and nacelle. The soil-structure interaction of the soil-foundation section is modelled by lumped-parameter models...

Technical review of the Sandia Laboratories' Particle Beam Fusion Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1979-01-01

This report considers the technical aspects of Sandia Laboratories' Particle Beam Fusion Program and examines the program's initial goals, the progress made to date towards reaching those goals, and the future plans or methods of reaching those original or modified goals. A summary of Sandia Laboratories' effort, which seeks to demonstrate that high voltage pulsed power generated high-current electron or light ion beams can be used to ignite a deuterium or tritium pellet, is provided. A brief review and assessment of the Sandia Pulse Power Program is given. Several critical issues and summaries of the committee members' opinions are discussed

1993 Site environmental report Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Culp, T.A.; Cheng, C.F.; Cox, W.; Durand, N.; Irwin, M.; Jones, A.; Lauffer, F.; Lincoln, M.; McClellan, Y.; Molley, K.

1994-11-01

This 1993 report contains monitoring data from routine radiological and nonradiological environmental surveillance activities. Summaries of significant environmental compliance programs in progress, such as National Environmental Policy Act documentation, environmental permits, environmental restoration, and various waste management programs for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are included. The maximum offsite dose impact was calculated to be 0.0016 millirem. The total population within a 50-mile (80 kilometer) radius of Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico received an estimated collective dose of 0.027 person-rem during 1993 from the laboratories operations, As in the previous year, the 1993 operations at Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico had no discernible impact on the general public or on the environment. This report is prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy in compliance with DOE Order 5400.1

NNSA Master Asset Map - Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Billie, Gepetta S. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2017-01-01

This report gives information on the following topics related to Sandia National Laboratories: site leadership's vision, condition, footprint management, major gaps and risks, and proposed investment plan.

Tornado type wind turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Cheng-Ting

1984-01-01

A tornado type wind turbine has a vertically disposed wind collecting tower with spaced apart inner and outer walls and a central bore. The upper end of the tower is open while the lower end of the structure is in communication with a wind intake chamber. An opening in the wind chamber is positioned over a turbine which is in driving communication with an electrical generator. An opening between the inner and outer walls at the lower end of the tower permits radially flowing air to enter the space between the inner and outer walls while a vertically disposed opening in the wind collecting tower permits tangentially flowing air to enter the central bore. A porous portion of the inner wall permits the radially flowing air to interact with the tangentially flowing air so as to create an intensified vortex flow which exits out of the top opening of the tower so as to create a low pressure core and thus draw air through the opening of the wind intake chamber so as to drive the turbine.

Aeroservoelasticity of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kallesøe, Bjarne Skovmose

2007-01-01

This thesis deals with the fundamental aeroelastic interaction between structural motion, Pitch action and control for a wind turbine blade. As wind turbines become larger, the interaction between pitch action, blade motion, aerodynamic forces, and control become even more important to understand......, and furthermore linear and therefore suitable for control design. The development of the primary aeroelastic blade model is divided into four steps: 1) Nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) of structural blade motion are derived together with equations of pitch action and rotor speed; the individual...... to a 2D blade section model, and it can be used instead of this in many applications, giving a transparent connection to a real wind turbine blade. In this work the aeroelastic blade model is used to analyze interaction between pitch action, blade motion and wind speed variations. Furthermore the model...

Sandia National Laboratories Institutional Plan FY1994--1999

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1993-10-01

This report presents a five year plan for the laboratory. This plan takes advantage of the technical strengths of the lab and its staff to address issues of concern to the nation on a scope much broader than Sandia`s original mission, while maintaining the general integrity of the laboratory. The plan proposes initiatives in a number of technologies which overlap the needs of its customers and the strengths of its staff. They include: advanced manufacturing technology; electronics; information and computational technology; transportation energy technology and infrastructure; environmental technology; energy research and technology development; biomedical systems engineering; and post-cold war defense imperatives.

Siemens Wind Power 3.6 MW wind turbines for large offshore wind farms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akhmatov, Vladislav; Nygaard Nielsen, Joergen; Thisted, Jan; Groendahl, Erik; Egedal, Per; Noertoft Frydensbjerg, Michael; Jensen, Kim Hoej [Siemens Wind Power A/S, Brande (Denmark)

2008-07-01

Siemens Wind power A/S is the key player on the offshore wind power market. The Siemens Wind Power 3.6 MW variable-speed wind turbine is among the word's largest, most advanced and competitive wind turbines with a solid portfolio of large offshore wind farms. Transmission system operators and developers require dynamic wind turbine models for evaluation of fault-ride-through capability and investigations of power system stability. The even larger size of the on- and offshore wind farms has entailed that the grid impact of the voltage and frequency control capability of the wind farm can be appropriated modelled and evaluated. Siemens Wind Power has developed a dynamic model of the 3.6 MW variable-speed wind turbine with the fault-ride-through sequences and models of the voltage and frequency controllers to be applied for large offshore wind farms. The dynamic models have been implemented in the commercially available simulation tools such as DIgSILENT PowerFactory and Siemens PTI PSS/E and successfully validated from measurements. (orig.)

New control strategy for grid connecting of wind turbine inverter without converter reactor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Tonny Wederberg; Sørensen, Kasper B.; Bjørneboe, Daniel

2013-01-01

Wind turbines and the belonging converters increase in size and price. A reduction in the number of main components is desirable while it reduces need of space, investments and increases the efficiency. A wind turbine contains both a converter reactor and a step up transformer. The paper presents...... theory and laboratory measurements for a new control strategy which make it possibly to connect a wind turbine converter to the utility grid without using the converter reactor or make measurements at the high voltage side of the transformer. The capability to control the DC voltage and reactive power...

Wind turbine with lightning protection system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2016-01-01

The present invention relates to a wind turbine comprising a lightning protection system comprising a waveguide interconnecting a communication device and a signal-carrying structure. In other aspects, the present invention relates to the use of a waveguide in a lightning protection system...... of a wind turbine, a power splitter and its use in a lightning protection system of a wind turbine....

Optimal Structural Reliability of Offshore Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, John Dalsgaard; Tarp-Johansen, N.J.

2005-01-01

The main failure modes of modern large wind turbines are fatigue failure of wings, hub, shaft and main tower, local buckling of main tower, and failure of the foundation. This paper considers reliability-based optimal design of wind turbines. Compared to onshore wind turbines and building...... structures, humans spent little time in the vicinity of offshore wind turbines and the probability of human injury during storm conditions is small. Further environmental pollution will also in general be small in case of failure. One could therefore argue that the reliability level of offshore wind turbines...... can be lower than for onshore wind turbines and other civil engineering structures and can be assessed by reliability-based cost-optimization. Specifically this paper considers the main tower and foundation. Both fatigue and ultimate strength failure modes are included. Different formulations...

Design of Wind Turbine Vibration Monitoring System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shoubin Wang

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In order to ensure safety of wind turbine operation and to reduce the occurrence of faults as well as to improve the reliability of wind turbine operation, a vibration monitoring for wind turbine is developed. In this paper, it analyses the enlargement of all the parts of the structure and the working mechanism, the research method of wind turbine operation vibration is introduced, with the focus being the use of the sensor principle. Finally the hardware design and software of this system is introduced and the main function of this system is described, which realizes condition monitoring of the work state of wind turbines.

Robust, Gain-Scheduled Control of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østergaard, Kasper Zinck

Wind turbines are today large and efficient machines, which are combined into wind farms operating on par with conventional power plants. When looking back, this is significantly different from the status only a few years ago, when wind turbines were sold mainly to private people. This change...... in turbine owners has resulted in a new focus on operational reliability instead of turbine size. This research deals with investigating model-based gain-scheduling control of wind turbines by use of linear parameter varying (LPV) methods. The numerical challenges grow quickly with the model size...

Progress in wind tunnel experimental techniques for wind turbine?

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jingping XIAO; Li CHEN; Qiang WANG; Qiao WANG

2016-01-01

Based on the unsteady aerodynamics experiment (UAE) phase VI and the model experiment in controlled conditions (MEXICO) projects and the related research carried out in China Aerodynamic Research and Development Center (CARDC), the recent progress in the wind tunnel experimental techniques for the wind turbine is sum-marized. Measurement techniques commonly used for di?erent types of wind tunnel ex-periments for wind turbine are reviewed. Important research achievements are discussed, such as the wind tunnel disturbance, the equivalence of the airfoil in?ow condition, the three-dimensional (3D) e?ect, the dynamic in?ow in?uence, the ?ow ?eld structure, and the vortex induction. The corresponding research at CARDC and some ideas on the large wind turbine are also introduced.

A spinner-integrated wind lidar for enhanced wind turbine control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mikkelsen, Torben; Angelou, Nikolas; Hansen, Kasper Hjorth

2013-01-01

A field test with a continuous wave wind lidar (ZephIR) installed in the rotating spinner of a wind turbine for unimpeded preview measurements of the upwind approaching wind conditions is described. The experimental setup with the wind lidar on the tip of the rotating spinner of a large 80 m roto...... of the spinner lidar data, is investigated. Finally, the potential for enhancing turbine control and performance based on wind lidar preview measurements in combination with feed-forward enabled turbine controllers is discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd....

Sandia Laboratories technical capabilities. Auxiliary capabilities: environmental health information science

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1975-09-01

Sandia Laboratories is an engineering laboratory in which research, development, testing, and evaluation capabilities are integrated by program management for the generation of advanced designs. In fulfilling its primary responsibility to ERDA, Sandia Laboratories has acquired extensive research and development capabilities. The purpose of this series of documents is to catalog the many technical capabilities of the Laboratories. After the listing of capabilities, supporting information is provided in the form of highlights, which show applications. This document deals with auxiliary capabilities, in particular, environmental health and information science. (11 figures, 1 table) (RWR)

Can road traffic mask sound from wind turbines? Response to wind turbine sound at different levels of road traffic sound

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pedersen, Eja; Berg, Frits van den; Bakker, Roel; Bouma, Jelte

2010-01-01

Wind turbines are favoured in the switch-over to renewable energy. Suitable sites for further developments could be difficult to find as the sound emitted from the rotor blades calls for a sufficient distance to residents to avoid negative effects. The aim of this study was to explore if road traffic sound could mask wind turbine sound or, in contrast, increases annoyance due to wind turbine noise. Annoyance of road traffic and wind turbine noise was measured in the WINDFARMperception survey in the Netherlands in 2007 (n=725) and related to calculated levels of sound. The presence of road traffic sound did not in general decrease annoyance with wind turbine noise, except when levels of wind turbine sound were moderate (35-40 dB(A) Lden) and road traffic sound level exceeded that level with at least 20 dB(A). Annoyance with both noises was intercorrelated but this correlation was probably due to the influence of individual factors. Furthermore, visibility and attitude towards wind turbines were significantly related to noise annoyance of modern wind turbines. The results can be used for the selection of suitable sites, possibly favouring already noise exposed areas if wind turbine sound levels are sufficiently low.

On damage diagnosis for a wind turbine blade using pattern recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Dervilis, N.; Choi, M.; Taylor, S. G.; Barthorpe, R. J.; Park, G.; Farrar, C. R.; Worden, K.

2014-03-01

With the increased interest in implementation of wind turbine power plants in remote areas, structural health monitoring (SHM) will be one of the key cards in the efficient establishment of wind turbines in the energy arena. Detection of blade damage at an early stage is a critical problem, as blade failure can lead to a catastrophic outcome for the entire wind turbine system. Experimental measurements from vibration analysis were extracted from a 9 m CX-100 blade by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) throughout a full-scale fatigue test conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and National Wind Technology Center (NWTC). The blade was harmonically excited at its first natural frequency using a Universal Resonant EXcitation (UREX) system. In the current study, machine learning algorithms based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), including an Auto-Associative Neural Network (AANN) based on a standard ANN form and a novel approach to auto-association with Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) networks are used, which are optimised for fast and efficient runs. This paper introduces such pattern recognition methods into the wind energy field and attempts to address the effectiveness of such methods by combining vibration response data with novelty detection techniques.

Concurrent Aeroservoelastic Design and Optimization of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tibaldi, Carlo

This work develops and investigates methods to integrate controllers in the wind turbine design process and to perform wind turbine optimization. These techniques can exploit the synergy between wind turbine components and generate new design solutions. Two frameworks to perform wind turbine...... optimization design are presented. These tools handle workflows to model a wind turbine and to evaluate loads and performances under specific conditions. Three approaches to evaluate loads are proposed and integrated in the optimization codes. The first method is based on time domain simulations, the second...... simulations, allows the selection of any controller parameter. The methods to evaluate loads and the pole-placement technique are then employed to carry out wind turbine optimization design from an aeroservoelastic prospective. Several analysis of the NREL 5 MW Reference Wind Turbine and the DTU 10 MW...

Fault diagnosis of direct-drive wind turbine based on support vector machine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

An, X L; Jiang, D X; Li, S H; Chen, J

2011-01-01

A fault diagnosis method of direct-drive wind turbine based on support vector machine (SVM) and feature selection is presented. The time-domain feature parameters of main shaft vibration signal in the horizontal and vertical directions are considered in the method. Firstly, in laboratory scale five experiments of direct-drive wind turbine with normal condition, wind wheel mass imbalance fault, wind wheel aerodynamic imbalance fault, yaw fault and blade airfoil change fault are carried out. The features of five experiments are analyzed. Secondly, the sensitive time-domain feature parameters in the horizontal and vertical directions of vibration signal in the five conditions are selected and used as feature samples. By training, the mapping relation between feature parameters and fault types are established in SVM model. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is verified through experimental data. The results show that the proposed method is effective in identifying the fault of wind turbine. It has good classification ability and robustness to diagnose the fault of direct-drive wind turbine.

Vertical axis wind turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Krivcov, Vladimir [Miass, RU; Krivospitski, Vladimir [Miass, RU; Maksimov, Vasili [Miass, RU; Halstead, Richard [Rohnert Park, CA; Grahov, Jurij [Miass, RU

2011-03-08

A vertical axis wind turbine is described. The wind turbine can include a top ring, a middle ring and a lower ring, wherein a plurality of vertical airfoils are disposed between the rings. For example, three vertical airfoils can be attached between the upper ring and the middle ring. In addition, three more vertical airfoils can be attached between the lower ring and the middle ring. When wind contacts the vertically arranged airfoils the rings begin to spin. By connecting the rings to a center pole which spins an alternator, electricity can be generated from wind.

'Wind turbine syndrome': fact or fiction?

Science.gov (United States)

Farboud, A; Crunkhorn, R; Trinidade, A

2013-03-01

Symptoms, including tinnitus, ear pain and vertigo, have been reported following exposure to wind turbine noise. This review addresses the effects of infrasound and low frequency noise and questions the existence of 'wind turbine syndrome'. This review is based on a search for articles published within the last 10 years, conducted using the PubMed database and Google Scholar search engine, which included in their title or abstract the terms 'wind turbine', 'infrasound' or 'low frequency noise'. There is evidence that infrasound has a physiological effect on the ear. Until this effect is fully understood, it is impossible to conclude that wind turbine noise does not cause any of the symptoms described. However, many believe that these symptoms are related largely to the stress caused by unwanted noise exposure. There is some evidence of symptoms in patients exposed to wind turbine noise. The effects of infrasound require further investigation.

Experimental and numerical study of a 10MW TLP wind turbine in waves and wind

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pegalajar Jurado, Antonio Manuel; Hansen, Anders Mandrup; Laugesen, Robert

2016-01-01

with the tests by matching key system features, namely the steady thrust curve and the decay tests in water. The calibrated model is used to reproduce the wind-wave climates in the laboratory, including regular and irregular waves, with and without wind. The model predictions are compared to the measured data......This paper presents tests on a 1:60 version of the DTU 10MW wind turbine mounted on a tension leg platform and their numerical reproduction. Both the experimental setup and the numerical model are Froude-scaled, and the dynamic response of the floating wind turbine to wind and waves is compared......, and a good agreement is found for surge and heave, while some discrepancies are observed for pitch, nacelle acceleration and line tension. The addition of wind generally improves the agreement with test results. The aerodynamic damping is identified in both tests and simulations. Finally, the sources...

Status of large scale wind turbine technology development abroad?

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Ye LI; Lei DUAN

2016-01-01

To facilitate the large scale (multi-megawatt) wind turbine development in China, the foreign e?orts and achievements in the area are reviewed and summarized. Not only the popular horizontal axis wind turbines on-land but also the o?shore wind turbines, vertical axis wind turbines, airborne wind turbines, and shroud wind turbines are discussed. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive comment and assessment about the basic work principle, economic aspects, and environmental impacts of turbines.

Conceptual survey of generators and power electronics for wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, L.H.; Helle, L.; Blaabjerg, F.

2002-01-01

This report presents a survey on generator concepts and power electronic concepts for wind turbines. The report is aimed as a tool for decision-makers and development people with respect to wind turbine manufactures, utilities, and independent systemoperators as well as manufactures of generators...... and power electronics. The survey is focused on the electric development of wind turbines and it yields an overview on: - State of the art on generators and power electronics. - future concepts andtechnologies within generators and power electronics. - market needs in the shape of requirements to the grid...... connection, and - consistent system solutions, plus an evaluation of these seen in the prospect of market needs. This survey on of generatorand power electronic concepts was carried out in co-operation between Aalborg University and Risø National Laboratory in the scope of the research programme Electric...

Load Extrapolation During Operation for Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Henrik Stensgaard; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

2008-01-01

In the recent years load extrapolation for wind turbines has been widely considered in the wind turbine industry. Loads on wind turbines during operations are normally dependent on the mean wind speed, the turbulence intensity and the type and settings of the control system. All these parameters...... must be taken into account when characteristic load effects during operation are determined. In the wind turbine standard IEC 61400-1 a method for load extrapolation using the peak over threshold method is recommended. In this paper this method is considered and some of the assumptions are examined...

Wind Turbines Adaptation to the Variability of the Wind Field

Science.gov (United States)

Ulianov, Yuriy; Martynenko, Gennadii; Misaylov, Vitaliy; Soliannikova, Iuliia

2010-05-01

WIND TURBINES ADAPTATION TO THE VARIABILITY OF THE WIND FIELD The subject of our scientific research is wind power turbines (WPT) with the horizontal axis which were now common in the world. Efficient wind turbines work is largely determined by non-stationarity of the wind field, expressed in its gustiness, the presence of vertical and horizontal shifts of wind speed and direction. At critical values of the wind parameters WPT has aerodynamic and mechanical overload, leading to breakdowns, premature wear and reduce the life of the wind turbine. To prevent accidents at the peak values of wind speed it is used the regulatory system of windwheels. WPT control systems provide a process orientation of the wind turbine rotor axis in the line of the mean wind. Wind turbines are also equipped with braking device used to protect against breakdowns when a significant increase in the wind. In general, all these methods of regulation are not always effective. Thus, in practice there may be situations when the wind speed is many times greater than the stated limit. For example, if there are microbursts in the atmospheric boundary layer, low-level wind shears caused by its gust front, storms, etc. It is required for a wind power turbine adaptation to intensive short-term wind impulses and considerable vertical wind shifts that the data about them shall be obtained ahead of time. To do this it is necessary to have the information on the real structure of the wind field in the area of the blade sweep for the minimum range against the wind that is determined by the mean speed and the system action time. The implementation of acoustic and laser traditional wind sounding systems is limited by ambient acoustic noise, by heavy rain, snowfall and by fog. There are free of these disadvantages the inclined radioacoustic sounding (IRASS) technique which works for a system of remote detection and control of wind gusts. IRASS technique is realized as low-potential Doppler pulse radar

Wind Penetration with different wind turbine technologies in a weak grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos Fuentefria, Ariel; Castro Fernandez, Miguel A.; Martínez García, Antonio

2012-01-01

The insertion of wind energy into electric network may provoke stability problems due to stochastic character of wind. The variation in the wind causes voltage variation in the Point of Common Coupling (PCC). In a weakest system that variation is high. Another important factor is wind turbine technology. The use of grid-connected fixed speed wind generator introduces a great consumption of reactive power that can be compensated using different devices as capacitors bank or static var compensator (SVC or STATCOM). In the other hand the variable speed wind turbine have an electronic converter to control the reactive consumption to maintain the PCC voltage more stable. In this paper a comparison between the different types of wind turbines technology is show. It's analyzing the impact in wind power limit for different wind turbine technologies in a weak system. (author)

Behavior of bats at wind turbines.

Science.gov (United States)

Cryan, Paul M; Gorresen, P Marcos; Hein, Cris D; Schirmacher, Michael R; Diehl, Robert H; Huso, Manuela M; Hayman, David T S; Fricker, Paul D; Bonaccorso, Frank J; Johnson, Douglas H; Heist, Kevin; Dalton, David C

2014-10-21

Wind turbines are causing unprecedented numbers of bat fatalities. Many fatalities involve tree-roosting bats, but reasons for this higher susceptibility remain unknown. To better understand behaviors associated with risk, we monitored bats at three experimentally manipulated wind turbines in Indiana, United States, from July 29 to October 1, 2012, using thermal cameras and other methods. We observed bats on 993 occasions and saw many behaviors, including close approaches, flight loops and dives, hovering, and chases. Most bats altered course toward turbines during observation. Based on these new observations, we tested the hypotheses that wind speed and blade rotation speed influenced the way that bats interacted with turbines. We found that bats were detected more frequently at lower wind speeds and typically approached turbines on the leeward (downwind) side. The proportion of leeward approaches increased with wind speed when blades were prevented from turning, yet decreased when blades could turn. Bats were observed more frequently at turbines on moonlit nights. Taken together, these observations suggest that bats may orient toward turbines by sensing air currents and using vision, and that air turbulence caused by fast-moving blades creates conditions that are less attractive to bats passing in close proximity. Tree bats may respond to streams of air flowing downwind from trees at night while searching for roosts, conspecifics, and nocturnal insect prey that could accumulate in such flows. Fatalities of tree bats at turbines may be the consequence of behaviors that evolved to provide selective advantages when elicited by tall trees, but are now maladaptive when elicited by wind turbines.

Behavior of bats at wind turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Cryan, Paul M.; Gorresen, P. Marcos; Hine, Cris D.; Schirmacher, Michael; Diehl, Robert H.; Huso, Manuela M.; Hayman, David T.S.; Fricker, Paul D.; Bonaccorso, Frank J.; Johnson, Douglas H.; Heist, Kevin W.; Dalton, David C.

2014-01-01

Wind turbines are causing unprecedented numbers of bat fatalities. Many fatalities involve tree-roosting bats, but reasons for this higher susceptibility remain unknown. To better understand behaviors associated with risk, we monitored bats at three experimentally manipulated wind turbines in Indiana, United States, from July 29 to October 1, 2012, using thermal cameras and other methods. We observed bats on 993 occasions and saw many behaviors, including close approaches, flight loops and dives, hovering, and chases. Most bats altered course toward turbines during observation. Based on these new observations, we tested the hypotheses that wind speed and blade rotation speed influenced the way that bats interacted with turbines. We found that bats were detected more frequently at lower wind speeds and typically approached turbines on the leeward (downwind) side. The proportion of leeward approaches increased with wind speed when blades were prevented from turning, yet decreased when blades could turn. Bats were observed more frequently at turbines on moonlit nights. Taken together, these observations suggest that bats may orient toward turbines by sensing air currents and using vision, and that air turbulence caused by fast-moving blades creates conditions that are less attractive to bats passing in close proximity. Tree bats may respond to streams of air flowing downwind from trees at night while searching for roosts, conspecifics, and nocturnal insect prey that could accumulate in such flows. Fatalities of tree bats at turbines may be the consequence of behaviors that evolved to provide selective advantages when elicited by tall trees, but are now maladaptive when elicited by wind turbines.

Effects of gain-scheduling methods in a classical wind turbine controller on wind turbine aeroservoelastic modes and loads

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tibaldi, Carlo; Henriksen, Lars Christian; Hansen, Morten Hartvig

2014-01-01

The eects of dierent gain-scheduling methods for a classical wind turbine controller, operating in full load region, on the wind turbine aeroservoelastic modes and loads are investigated in this work. The dierent techniques are derived looking at the physical problem to take into account the chan......The eects of dierent gain-scheduling methods for a classical wind turbine controller, operating in full load region, on the wind turbine aeroservoelastic modes and loads are investigated in this work. The dierent techniques are derived looking at the physical problem to take into account...

Performance of a 3 kW wind turbine generator with variable pitch control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagai, Baku M.; Ameku, Kazumasa; Roy, Jitendro Nath

2009-01-01

A prototype 3 kW horizontal upwind type wind turbine generator of 4 m in diameter has been designed and examined under real wind conditions. The machine was designed based on the concept that even small wind turbines should have a variable pitch control system just as large wind turbines, especially in Japan where typhoons occur at least once a year. A characteristic of the machine is the use of a worm and gear system with a stepping motor installed in the center of the hub, and the rotational main shaft. The machine is constructed with no mechanical breaking system so as to avoid damage from strong winds. In a storm, the wind turbine is slowed down by adjusting the pitch angle and the maximum electrical load. Usually the machine is controlled at several stages depending on the rotational speed of the blades. Two control methods have been applied: the variable pitch angle, and regulation of the generator field current. The characteristics of the generator under each rotational speed and field current are first investigated in the laboratory. This paper describes the performances of the wind turbine in terms of the functions of wind turbine rotational speed, generated outputs, and its stability for wind speed changes. The expected performances of the machine have been confirmed under real wind conditions and compared with numerical simulation results. The wind turbine showed a power coefficient of 0.257 under the average wind speed of 7.3 m/s.

Aeroelastic instability problems for wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Morten Hartvig

2007-01-01

This paper deals with the aeroelostic instabilities that have occurred and may still occur for modem commercial wind turbines: stall-induced vibrations for stall-turbines, and classical flutter for pitch-regulated turbines. A review of previous works is combined with derivations of analytical...... stiffness and chordwise position of the center of gravity along the blades are the main parameters for flutter. These instability characteristics are exemplified by aeroelastic stability analyses of different wind turbines. The review of each aeroelastic instability ends with a list of current research...... issues that represent unsolved aeroelostic instability problems for wind turbines. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd....

Sandia National Laboratories, California Environmental Management System Program Manual.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2009-04-01

The Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) Environmental Management System (EMS) Program Manual documents the elements of the site EMS Program. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard on Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004 and Department of Energy (DOE) Order 450.1. Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) has maintained functional environmental programs to assist with regulatory compliance for more than 30 years. During 2005, these existing programs were rolled into a formal environmental management system (EMS) that expands beyond the traditional compliance focus to managing and improving environmental performance and stewardship practices for all site activities. An EMS is a set of inter-related elements that represent a continuing cycle of planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving processes and actions undertaken to achieve environmental policy and goals. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004 (ISO 2004). The site received ISO 14001 certification in September 2006. SNL/CA's EMS Program is applicable to the Sandia, Livermore site only. Although SNL/CA operates as one organizational division of the overall Sandia National Laboratories, the EMS Program is site-specific, with site-specific objectives and targets. SNL/CA (Division 8000) benefits from the organizational structure as it provides corporate level policies, procedures, and standards, and established processes that connect to and support elements of the SNL/CA EMS Program. Additionally, SNL/CA's EMS Program benefits from two corporate functional programs (Facilities Energy Management and Fleet Services Environmental programs) that maintain responsibility for energy management and fleet services for all Sandia locations. Each EMS element is further enhanced with site-specific processes and standards. Division 8000 has several groups operating at Sandia

Sandia National Laboratories, California Environmental Management System program manual.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2012-03-01

The Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) Environmental Management System (EMS) Program Manual documents the elements of the site EMS Program. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard on Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004and Department of Energy (DOE) Order 436.1. Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) has maintained functional environmental programs to assist with regulatory compliance for more than 30 years. During 2005, these existing programs were rolled into a formal environmental management system (EMS) that expands beyond the traditional compliance focus to managing and improving environmental performance and stewardship practices for all site activities. An EMS is a set of inter-related elements that represent a continuing cycle of planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving processes and actions undertaken to achieve environmental policy and goals. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004 (ISO 2004). The site first received ISO 14001 certification in September 2006 and recertification in 2009. SNL/CA's EMS Program is applicable to the Sandia, Livermore site only. Although SNL/CA operates as one organizational division of the overall Sandia National Laboratories, the EMS Program is site-specific, with site-specific objectives and targets. SNL/CA (Division 8000) benefits from the organizational structure as it provides corporate level policies, procedures, and standards, and established processes that connect to and support elements of the SNL/CA EMS Program. Additionally, SNL/CA's EMS Program benefits from two corporate functional programs (Facilities Energy and Water Resource Management and Fleet Services programs) that maintain responsibility for energy management and fleet services for all Sandia locations. Each EMS element is further enhanced with site-specific processes and standards. Division 8000 has

Sandia National Laboratories, California Environmental Management System Program Manual.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2011-04-01

The Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) Environmental Management System (EMS) Program Manual documents the elements of the site EMS Program. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard on Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004and Department of Energy (DOE) Order 450.1. Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) has maintained functional environmental programs to assist with regulatory compliance for more than 30 years. During 2005, these existing programs were rolled into a formal environmental management system (EMS) that expands beyond the traditional compliance focus to managing and improving environmental performance and stewardship practices for all site activities. An EMS is a set of inter-related elements that represent a continuing cycle of planning, implementing, evaluating, and improving processes and actions undertaken to achieve environmental policy and goals. The SNL/CA EMS Program conforms to the International Standard for Environmental Management Systems, ISO 14001:2004 (ISO 2004). The site received ISO 14001 certification in September 2006. SNL/CA's EMS Program is applicable to the Sandia, Livermore site only. Although SNL/CA operates as one organizational division of the overall Sandia National Laboratories, the EMS Program is site-specific, with site-specific objectives and targets. SNL/CA (Division 8000) benefits from the organizational structure as it provides corporate level policies, procedures, and standards, and established processes that connect to and support elements of the SNL/CA EMS Program. Additionally, SNL/CA's EMS Program benefits from two corporate functional programs (Facilities Energy Management and Fleet Services programs) that maintain responsibility for energy management and fleet services for all Sandia locations. Each EMS element is further enhanced with site-specific processes and standards. Division 8000 has several groups operating at Sandia National Laboratories

Analysis and design of a vertical axis wind turbine

OpenAIRE

Goyena Iriso, Joseba

2011-01-01

The main objective of this project is to design a new vertical axis wind turbine, specifically one Giromill wind turbine. The project development requires performing a previous study of the vertical axis wind turbines currently development. This study has to be performed before starting to design the wind turbine. Other very important aim is the development of a new vertical axis wind turbine. The after analyses that will result in the final design of the wind turbine will b...

Wind turbine spoiler

Science.gov (United States)

Sullivan, W.N.

An aerodynamic spoiler system for a vertical axis wind turbine includes spoilers on the blades initially stored near the rotor axis to minimize drag. A solenoid latch adjacent the central support tower releases the spoilers and centrifugal force causes the spoilers to move up the turbine blades away from the rotor axis, thereby producing a braking effect and actual slowing of the associated wind turbine, if desired. The spoiler system can also be used as an infinitely variable power control by regulated movement of the spoilers on the blades over the range between the undeployed and fully deployed positions. This is done by the use of a suitable powered reel and cable located at the rotor tower to move the spoilers.

Innovative multi rotor wind turbine designs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kale, S.A.; Sapali, S.N. [College of Engineering. Mechanical Engineering Dept, Pune (India)

2012-07-01

Among the renewable energy sources, today wind energy is the most recognized and cost effective. Developers and researchers in this sector are optimistic and continuously working innovatively to improve the technology. The wind power obtained is proportional to the swept area of wind turbine. The swept area is increased by using a single rotor of large diameter or multi rotors in array. The rotor size is growing continuously with mature technology. Multi rotor technology has a long history and the multi rotor concept persists in a variety of modern innovative systems but the concept has fallen out of consideration in mainstream design from the perception that is complex and unnecessary as very large single rotor units are now technically feasible. This work addresses the evaluation of different multi rotor wind turbine systems. These innovative wind turbines are evaluated on the basis of feasibility, technological advantages, security of expected power performance, cost, reliability, impact of innovative system, comparison with existing wind turbine design. The findings of this work will provide guidelines for the practical and economical ways for further research on the multi rotor wind turbines. (Author)

Impact of wind turbines on birds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clausager, I.; Nohr, H.

1996-01-01

The paper is a review of the present knowledge on impacts of wind turbines on birds, requested by the Danish Ministry of the Environment and Energy. The main conclusions of the review are, that in nearly all the studies so far the numbers of birds recorded colliding with wind turbines have been limited. Some studies indicate that stationary (breeding) birds inside the wind turbine area in the short run habituate to wind turbines, especially the noise and visual impacts, and that the risk for collision becomes low. However, some of the few more long term studies indicate that a negative impact may occur in later generations of breeding birds. In some studies a disturbance effect on bird species, which temporarily stay inside a wind turbine area in order to forage or rest, is observed. The degree of impact is species-specific. An effect is typically recorded inside a zone of up to 250-800 m, with geese and waders as the most sensitive groups of birds. (author)

Site environmental report for 2009 : Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Larsen, Barbara L.

2010-06-01

Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) is a government-owned/contractor-operated laboratory. Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, operates the laboratory for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA Sandia Site Office oversees operations at the site, using Sandia Corporation as a management and operating contractor. This Site Environmental Report for 2009 was prepared in accordance with DOE Order 231.1A (DOE 2004a). The report provides a summary of environmental monitoring information and compliance activities that occurred at SNL/CA during calendar year 2009. General site and environmental program information is also included. The Site Environmental Report is divided into ten chapters. Chapter 1, the Executive Summary, highlights compliance and monitoring results obtained in 2009. Chapter 2 provides a brief introduction to SNL/CA and the existing environment found on site. Chapter 3 summarizes SNL/CA's compliance activities with the major environmental requirements applicable to site operations. Chapter 4 presents information on environmental management, performance measures, and environmental programs. Chapter 5 presents the results of monitoring and surveillance activities in 2009. Chapter 6 discusses quality assurance. Chapters 7 through 9 provide supporting information for the report and Chapter 10 is the report distribution list.

Assessment of C-Type Darrieus Wind Turbine Under Low Wind Speed Condition

Science.gov (United States)

Misaran, M. S.; Rahman, Md. M.; Muzammil, W. K.; Ismail, M. A.

2017-07-01

Harvesting wind energy in in a low wind speed region is deem un-economical if not daunting task. Study shows that a minimum cut in speed of 3.5 m/s is required to extract a meaningful wind energy for electricity while a mean speed of 6 m/s is preferred. However, in Malaysia the mean speed is at 2 m/s with certain potential areas having 3 m/s mean speed. Thus, this work aims to develop a wind turbine that able to operate at lower cut-in speed and produce meaningful power for electricity generation. A C-type Darrieus blade is selected as it shows good potential to operate in arbitrary wind speed condition. The wind turbine is designed and fabricated in UMS labs while the performance of the wind turbine is evaluated in a simulated wind condition. Test result shows that the wind turbine started to rotate at 1 m/s compared to a NACA 0012 Darrieus turbine that started to rotate at 3 m/s. The performance of the turbine shows that it have good potential to be used in an intermittent arbitrary wind speed condition as well as low mean wind speed condition.

Wind Turbine Contingency Control Through Generator De-Rating

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Susan; Goebel, Kai; Balas, Mark

2013-01-01

Maximizing turbine up-time and reducing maintenance costs are key technology drivers for wind turbine operators. Components within wind turbines are subject to considerable stresses due to unpredictable environmental conditions resulting from rapidly changing local dynamics. In that context, systems health management has the aim to assess the state-of-health of components within a wind turbine, to estimate remaining life, and to aid in autonomous decision-making to minimize damage to the turbine. Advanced contingency control is one way to enable autonomous decision-making by providing the mechanism to enable safe and efficient turbine operation. The work reported herein explores the integration of condition monitoring of wind turbines with contingency control to balance the trade-offs between maintaining system health and energy capture. The contingency control involves de-rating the generator operating point to achieve reduced loads on the wind turbine. Results are demonstrated using a high fidelity simulator of a utility-scale wind turbine.

Targets development at Sandia National Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, M.L.; Hebron, D.; Derzon, M.; Olson, R.; Alberts, T.

1997-01-01

For many years, Sandia National Laboratories under contract to the Department of Energy has produced targets designed to understand complex ion beam and z-pinch plasma physics. This poster focuses on the features of target designs that make them suitable for Z-pinch plasma physics applications. Precision diagnostic targets will prove critical in understanding the plasma physics model needed for future ion beam and z-pinch design. Targets are designed to meet specific physics needs; in this case the authors have fabricated targets to maximize information about the end-on versus side-on x-ray emission and z-pinch hohlraum development. In this poster, they describe the fabrication and characterization techniques. They include discussion of current targets under development as well as target fabrication capabilities. Advanced target designs are fabricated by Sandia National Laboratories in cooperation with General Atomics of San Diego, CA and W.J. Schafer Associates, Inc. of Livermore, CA

Basic controller tuning for large offshore wind turbines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. O. Merz

2016-09-01

Full Text Available When a wind turbine operates above the rated wind speed, the blade pitch may be governed by a basic single-input–single-output PI controller, with the shaft speed as input. The performance of the wind turbine depends upon the tuning of the gains and filters of this controller. Rules of thumb, based upon pole placement, with a rigid model of the rotor, are inadequate for tuning the controller of large, flexible, offshore wind turbines. It is shown that the appropriate controller tuning is highly dependent upon the characteristics of the aeroelastic model: no single reference controller can be defined for use with all models. As an example, the ubiquitous National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL 5 MW wind turbine controller is unstable when paired with a fully flexible aeroelastic model. A methodical search is conducted, in order to find models with a minimum number of degrees of freedom, which can be used to tune the controller for a fully flexible aeroelastic model; this can be accomplished with a model containing 16–20 states. Transient aerodynamic effects, representing rotor-average properties, account for five of these states. A simple method is proposed to reduce the full transient aerodynamic model, and the associated turbulent wind spectra, to the rotor average. Ocean waves are also an important source of loading; it is recommended that the shaft speed signal be filtered such that wave-driven tower side-to-side vibrations do not appear in the PI controller output. An updated tuning for the NREL 5 MW controller is developed using a Pareto front technique. This fixes the instability and gives good performance with fully flexible aeroelastic models.

POLLUTION PREVENTION OPPORTUNITY ASSESSMENT - MANUFACTURING AND FABRICATION REPAIR LABORATORY AT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

Science.gov (United States)

These reports summarize pollution prevention opportunity assessments conducted jointly by EPA and DOE at the Geochemistry Laboratory and the Manufacturing and Fabrication Repair Laboratory at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories facility in Albuquerque, New Mex...

Lubricants : the lifeblood of wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tremblay, Y. [Petro-Canada, Calgary, AB (Canada)

2009-07-01

With the significant investments in wind turbine equipment, companies need to exercise due diligence when it comes to the types of lubricants and fluids used. Mechanical and equipment issues can often be eliminated with improved maintenance practices and the appropriate selection of lubricants. This presentation discussed lubricants as being the lifeblood of wind turbines. The presentation first provided an overview and discussed wind turbine trends and application trends. The technical aspects of fluid formation were presented. Lubrication maintenance practices and oil monitoring were discussed. Last, key industry tests, and OEM specifications for bearings, gearboxes, and wind turbines were identified. It was concluded that improved maintenance practices in combination with the correct lubricant selection can address several operating problems. figs.

Grid integration impacts on wind turbine design and development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anca Daniela; Cutululis, Nicolaos Antonio; Sørensen, Poul Ejnar

2009-01-01

This paper presents an overall perspective on contemporary issues like wind power plants and grid integration. The purpose is to present and discuss the impacts of emerging new grid connection requirements on modern wind turbines. The grid integration issue has caused several new challenges......, the grid integration aspect has also an effect on wind turbines' role in the power system, on wind turbine technologies' survival on the market, as well as on the wind turbines' loads. Over the last years, it became obviously, that there it is an increasing need for design and research of wind turbines...... to the wind turbine design and development. The survival of different wind turbine concepts and controls is strongly conditioned by their ability to comply with stringent grid connection requirements, imposed by utility companies. Beside its impact on the mechanical design and control of wind turbines...

Some aspects on wind turbines monitoring. General considerations and loads on horizontal wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cuerva, A.

1996-12-01

The concept Monitoring applied to the Wind Energy technology is similar to the definition used in other branches of Science or Engineering, this is knowing values of variables which have to do with a mechanic system, in our case a wind turbine. These mentioned parameters may have different relationships to our wind turbine; some of them come from the environment the machine is operating in, others, are a measure of how properly the machine is working, and finally, the rest are an assessment of the ``system`s health`` during its ``life``. In this chapter we will answer questions such as: What do we need to measure? Why is Monitoring mandatory (from the different points of view of people involved in this world)? How can we measure a wind turbine depending on our objectives (Technic, tools, guidance, recommendations, etc)? And finally What can we expect in the near future?. The author wants the reader to keep the idea in mind that Monitoring means the richest and most accurate knowledge on wind turbine`s operation (Its environment, performances of health). This is the first step that allows us to optimize the operation mode of the machine and improve it (design, manufacturing, even the used modeling tools). When there is so much money involved, this fact becomes a must. (Author)

InfraSound from wind turbines : observations from Castle River wind farm. Volume 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Edworthy, J.; Hepburn, H.

2005-01-01

Although infrasound has been discussed as a concern by groups opposed to wind farm facilities, there is very little information available about infrasound and wind turbines. This paper presented details of a project conducted by VisionQuest, the largest wind power producer in Canada. Three sensor types were used: precision sound analyzer, seismic geophones, and calibrated microphones to take measurements in low, medium and high winds. The project also measured infrasound when the wind farm was not operating. Acquisition geometry was presented, as well as details of apparent attenuations of wind noise. It was noted that high wind noise was a dominant factor and that there was little difference when the wind farm was not operational. It was suggested that turbines have no impact with high wind, since wind noise is not attenuated with distance. It was noted that increased geophone amplitudes indicate high wind coupled motion which is attenuated when the turbines are on. Results indicate that all frequencies showed attenuation with distance. Evidence showed that low frequency sound pressure levels were often lower when the turbines were switched on. Where turbines contributed to sound pressure levels, the magnitude of the contribution was below levels of concern to human health. Ambient sound pressure levels were much higher than contributions from wind turbines. It was concluded that wind itself generates infrasound. Wind turbines generate low levels of infrasound, detectable very close to facilities at low to medium wind speeds. Wind turbines may reduce ambient infrasound levels at high wind speeds by converting the energy from the wind into electricity. refs., tabs., figs

Experimental and analytical research on the aerodynamics of wind driven turbines. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rohrbach, C.; Wainauski, H.; Worobel, R.

1977-12-01

This aerodynamic research program was aimed at providing a reliable, comprehensive data base on a series of wind turbine models covering a broad range of the prime aerodynamic and geometric variables. Such data obtained under controlled laboratory conditions on turbines designed by the same method, of the same size, and tested in the same wind tunnel had not been available in the literature. Moreover, this research program was further aimed at providing a basis for evaluating the adequacy of existing wind turbine aerodynamic design and performance methodology, for assessing the potential of recent advanced theories and for providing a basis for further method development and refinement.

Micromachined sensor and actuator research at Sandia`s Microelectronics Development Laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, J.H.

1996-11-01

An overview of the surface micromachining program at the Microelectronics Development Laboratory of Sandia National Laboratories is presented. Development efforts are underway for a variety of surface micromachined sensors and actuators for both defense and commercial applications. A technology that embeds micromechanical devices below the surface of the wafer prior to microelectronics fabrication has been developed for integrating microelectronics with surface-micromachined micromechanical devices. The application of chemical-mechanical polishing to increase the manufacturability of micromechanical devices is also presented.

Experimental investigation on the wake interference among wind turbines sited in atmospheric boundary layer winds

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

W. Tian; A. Ozbay; X. D. Wang; H.Hu

2017-01-01

We examined experimentally the effects of incom-ing surface wind on the turbine wake and the wake interfer-ence among upstream and downstream wind turbines sited in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds. The experi-ment was conducted in a large-scale ABL wind tunnel with scaled wind turbine models mounted in different incom-ing surface winds simulating the ABL winds over typical offshore/onshore wind farms. Power outputs and dynamic loadings acting on the turbine models and the wake flow char-acteristics behind the turbine models were quantified. The results revealed that the incoming surface winds significantly affect the turbine wake characteristics and wake interference between the upstream and downstream turbines. The velocity deficits in the turbine wakes recover faster in the incoming surface winds with relatively high turbulence levels. Varia-tions of the power outputs and dynamic wind loadings acting on the downstream turbines sited in the wakes of upstream turbines are correlated well with the turbine wakes charac-teristics. At the same downstream locations, the downstream turbines have higher power outputs and experience greater static and fatigue loadings in the inflow with relatively high turbulence level, suggesting a smaller effect of wake inter-ference for the turbines sited in onshore wind farms.

Wind turbines and human health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Loren eKnopper

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The association between wind turbines and health effects is highly debated. Some argue that reported health effects are related to wind turbine operation (electromagnetic fields (EMF, shadow flicker, audible noise, low frequency noise, infrasound. Others suggest that when turbines are sited correctly, effects are more likely attributable to a number of subjective variables that result in an annoyed/stressed state. In this review we provide a bibliographic-like summary and analysis of the science around this issue specifically in terms of noise (including audible, low frequency noise and infrasound, EMF and shadow flicker. Now there are roughly 60 scientific peer-reviewed articles on this issue. The available scientific evidence suggests that EMF, shadow flicker, low frequency noise and infrasound from wind turbines are not likely to affect human health; some studies have found that audible noise from wind turbines can be annoying to some. Annoyance may be associated with some self-reported health effects (e.g., sleep disturbance especially at sound pressure levels >40 dB(A. Because environmental noise above certain levels is a recognized factor in a number of health issues, siting restrictions have been implemented in many jurisdictions to limit noise exposure. These setbacks should help alleviate annoyance from noise. Subjective variables (attitudes and expectations are also linked to annoyance and have the potential to facilitate other health complaints via the nocebo effect. Therefore, it is possible that a segment of the population may remain annoyed (or report other health impacts even when noise limits are enforced. Based on the findings and scientific merit of the available studies, the weight of evidence suggests that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health. Stemming from this review, we provide a number of recommended best practices for wind turbine development in the context of human health.

Wind turbines and human health.

Science.gov (United States)

Knopper, Loren D; Ollson, Christopher A; McCallum, Lindsay C; Whitfield Aslund, Melissa L; Berger, Robert G; Souweine, Kathleen; McDaniel, Mary

2014-01-01

The association between wind turbines and health effects is highly debated. Some argue that reported health effects are related to wind turbine operation [electromagnetic fields (EMF), shadow flicker, audible noise, low-frequency noise, infrasound]. Others suggest that when turbines are sited correctly, effects are more likely attributable to a number of subjective variables that result in an annoyed/stressed state. In this review, we provide a bibliographic-like summary and analysis of the science around this issue specifically in terms of noise (including audible, low-frequency noise, and infrasound), EMF, and shadow flicker. Now there are roughly 60 scientific peer-reviewed articles on this issue. The available scientific evidence suggests that EMF, shadow flicker, low-frequency noise, and infrasound from wind turbines are not likely to affect human health; some studies have found that audible noise from wind turbines can be annoying to some. Annoyance may be associated with some self-reported health effects (e.g., sleep disturbance) especially at sound pressure levels >40 dB(A). Because environmental noise above certain levels is a recognized factor in a number of health issues, siting restrictions have been implemented in many jurisdictions to limit noise exposure. These setbacks should help alleviate annoyance from noise. Subjective variables (attitudes and expectations) are also linked to annoyance and have the potential to facilitate other health complaints via the nocebo effect. Therefore, it is possible that a segment of the population may remain annoyed (or report other health impacts) even when noise limits are enforced. Based on the findings and scientific merit of the available studies, the weight of evidence suggests that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health. Stemming from this review, we provide a number of recommended best practices for wind turbine development in the context of human health.

Wind Turbines and Human Health

Science.gov (United States)

Knopper, Loren D.; Ollson, Christopher A.; McCallum, Lindsay C.; Whitfield Aslund, Melissa L.; Berger, Robert G.; Souweine, Kathleen; McDaniel, Mary

2014-01-01

The association between wind turbines and health effects is highly debated. Some argue that reported health effects are related to wind turbine operation [electromagnetic fields (EMF), shadow flicker, audible noise, low-frequency noise, infrasound]. Others suggest that when turbines are sited correctly, effects are more likely attributable to a number of subjective variables that result in an annoyed/stressed state. In this review, we provide a bibliographic-like summary and analysis of the science around this issue specifically in terms of noise (including audible, low-frequency noise, and infrasound), EMF, and shadow flicker. Now there are roughly 60 scientific peer-reviewed articles on this issue. The available scientific evidence suggests that EMF, shadow flicker, low-frequency noise, and infrasound from wind turbines are not likely to affect human health; some studies have found that audible noise from wind turbines can be annoying to some. Annoyance may be associated with some self-reported health effects (e.g., sleep disturbance) especially at sound pressure levels >40 dB(A). Because environmental noise above certain levels is a recognized factor in a number of health issues, siting restrictions have been implemented in many jurisdictions to limit noise exposure. These setbacks should help alleviate annoyance from noise. Subjective variables (attitudes and expectations) are also linked to annoyance and have the potential to facilitate other health complaints via the nocebo effect. Therefore, it is possible that a segment of the population may remain annoyed (or report other health impacts) even when noise limits are enforced. Based on the findings and scientific merit of the available studies, the weight of evidence suggests that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health. Stemming from this review, we provide a number of recommended best practices for wind turbine development in the context of human health. PMID:24995266

Modeling of wind turbines for power system studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Petru, T.

2001-05-01

When wind turbines are installed into the electric grid, the power quality is affected. Today, strict installation recommendations often prevail due to a lack of knowledge on this subject. Consequently, it is important to predict the impact of wind turbines on the electric grid before the turbines are installed. The thesis describes relevant power quality issues, discusses different configurations of wind turbines with respect to power quality and draw requirements regarding wind turbine modeling. A model of a stall-regulated, fixed-speed wind turbine system is introduced and its power quality impact on the electric grid is evaluated. The model is verified with field measurements.

LES investigation of infinite staggered wind-turbine arrays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Xiaolei; Sotiropoulos, Fotis

2014-01-01

The layouts of turbines affect the turbine wake interactions and thus the wind farm performance. The wake interactions in infinite staggered wind-turbine arrays are investigated and compared with infinite aligned turbine arrays in this paper. From the numerical results we identify three types of wake behaviours, which are significantly different from wakes in aligned wind-turbine arrays. For the first type, each turbine wake interferes with the pair of staggered downstream turbine wakes and the aligned downstream turbine. For the second type, each turbine wake interacts with the first two downstream turbine wakes but does not show significant interference with the second aligned downstream turbine. For the third type, each turbine wake recovers immediately after passing through the gap of the first two downstream turbines and has little interaction with the second downstream turbine wakes The extracted power density and power efficiency are also studied and compared with aligned wind-turbine arrays

Method and apparatus for wind turbine braking

Science.gov (United States)

Barbu, Corneliu [Laguna Hills, CA; Teichmann, Ralph [Nishkayuna, NY; Avagliano, Aaron [Houston, TX; Kammer, Leonardo Cesar [Niskayuna, NY; Pierce, Kirk Gee [Simpsonville, SC; Pesetsky, David Samuel [Greenville, SC; Gauchel, Peter [Muenster, DE

2009-02-10

A method for braking a wind turbine including at least one rotor blade coupled to a rotor. The method includes selectively controlling an angle of pitch of the at least one rotor blade with respect to a wind direction based on a design parameter of a component of the wind turbine to facilitate reducing a force induced into the wind turbine component as a result of braking.

Conceptual survey of Generators and Power Electronics for Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, L.H.; Helle, L.; Blaabjerg, F.; Ritchie, E.; Munk-Nielsen, S.; Bindner, H.; Soerensen, P.; Bak-Jensen, B.

2001-12-01

This report presents a survey on generator concepts and power electronic concepts for wind turbines. The report is aimed as a tool for decision-makers and development people with respect to wind turbine manufactures, utilities, and independent system operators as well as manufactures of generators and power electronics. The survey is focused on the electric development of wind turbines and it yields an overview on: State of the art on generators and power electronics; future concepts and technologies within generators and power electronics; market needs in the shape of requirements to the grid connection, and; consistent system solutions, plus an evaluation of these seen in the prospect of market needs. This survey on of generator and power electronic concepts was carried out in co-operation between Aalborg University and Risoe National Laboratory in the scope of the research programme Electric Design and Control. (au)

Analysis of turbine-grid interaction of grid-connected wind turbine using HHT

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, A.; Wu, W.; Miao, J.; Xie, D.

2018-05-01

This paper processes the output power of the grid-connected wind turbine with the denoising and extracting method based on Hilbert Huang transform (HHT) to discuss the turbine-grid interaction. At first, the detailed Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and the Hilbert Transform (HT) are introduced. Then, on the premise of decomposing the output power of the grid-connected wind turbine into a series of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), energy ratio and power volatility are calculated to detect the unessential components. Meanwhile, combined with vibration function of turbine-grid interaction, data fitting of instantaneous amplitude and phase of each IMF is implemented to extract characteristic parameters of different interactions. Finally, utilizing measured data of actual parallel-operated wind turbines in China, this work accurately obtains the characteristic parameters of turbine-grid interaction of grid-connected wind turbine.

Reliability Modeling of Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kostandyan, Erik

Cost reductions for offshore wind turbines are a substantial requirement in order to make offshore wind energy more competitive compared to other energy supply methods. During the 20 – 25 years of wind turbines useful life, Operation & Maintenance costs are typically estimated to be a quarter...... for Operation & Maintenance planning. Concentrating efforts on development of such models, this research is focused on reliability modeling of Wind Turbine critical subsystems (especially the power converter system). For reliability assessment of these components, structural reliability methods are applied...... to one third of the total cost of energy. Reduction of Operation & Maintenance costs will result in significant cost savings and result in cheaper electricity production. Operation & Maintenance processes mainly involve actions related to replacements or repair. Identifying the right times when...

A Two-Bladed Concept Wind Turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kim, Taeseong

2012-01-01

This article shows the potential for reducing extreme loads with an innovative design of wind turbine, a partial pitch two-bladed concept turbine. The most extreme conditions to test a turbine are considered to be stand-still combined with a grid failure in which the wind comes from all directions...

Sandia National Laboratories: Sandia Enabled Communications and

Science.gov (United States)

Locator Search Menu About Leadership Mission Social Media Community Involvement Contribution Programs Social Media Careers View All Jobs Students & Postdocs Benefits & Perks Hiring Process Life at New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program Sandia's Economic Impact Sandia Science & Technology

Wind resource estimation and siting of wind turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lundtang Petersen, Erik; Mortensen, N.G.; Landberg, L.

1994-01-01

Detailed knowledge of the characteristics of the natural wind is necessary for the design, planning and operational aspect of wind energy systems. Here, we shall only be concerned with those meteorological aspects of wind energy planning that are termed wind resource estimation. The estimation...... of the wind resource ranges from the overall estimation of the mean energy content of the wind over a large area - called regional assessment - to the prediction of the average yearly energy production of a specific wind turbine at a specific location - called siting. A regional assessment will most often...... lead to a so-called wind atlas. A precise prediction of the wind speed at a given site is essential because for aerodynamic reasons the power output of a wind turbine is proportional to the third power of the wind speed, hence even small errors in prediction of wind speed may result in large deviations...

Adaptive Control of a Utility-Scale Wind Turbine Operating in Region 3

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Susan A.; Balas, Mark J.; Wright, Alan D.

2009-01-01

Adaptive control techniques are well suited to nonlinear applications, such as wind turbines, which are difficult to accurately model and which have effects from poorly known operating environments. The turbulent and unpredictable conditions in which wind turbines operate create many challenges for their operation. In this paper, we design an adaptive collective pitch controller for a high-fidelity simulation of a utility scale, variable-speed horizontal axis wind turbine. The objective of the adaptive pitch controller in Region 3 is to regulate generator speed and reject step disturbances. The control objective is accomplished by collectively pitching the turbine blades. We use an extension of the Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control (DMRAC) approach to track a reference point and to reject persistent disturbances. The turbine simulation models the Controls Advanced Research Turbine (CART) of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. The CART is a utility-scale wind turbine which has a well-developed and extensively verified simulator. The adaptive collective pitch controller for Region 3 was compared in simulations with a bas celliansesical Proportional Integrator (PI) collective pitch controller. In the simulations, the adaptive pitch controller showed improved speed regulation in Region 3 when compared with the baseline PI pitch controller and it demonstrated robustness to modeling errors.

Additive Manufacturing of Wind Turbine Molds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Post, Brian [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Richardson, Bradley [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Lloyd, Peter [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Love, Lonnie [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Nolet, Stephen [TPI Composites, Scottsdale, AZ (United States); Hannan, James [TPI Composites, Scottsdale, AZ (United States)

2017-07-01

The objective of this project was to explore the utility of Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) for low cost manufacturing of wind turbine molds. Engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and TPI Composites (TPI) collaborated to design and manufacture a printed mold that can be used for resin infusion of wind turbine components. Specific focus was on required material properties (operating temperatures and pressures, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), thermal conductivity), surface finish (accuracy and coatings) and system integration (integrated vacuum ports, and heating element). The project began with a simple proof of principle components, targeting surface coatings and material properties for printing a small section (approximately 4’ x 4’ x 2’) of a mold. Next, the second phase scaled up and integrated with the objective of capturing all of the necessary components (integrated heating to accelerate cure time, and vacuum, sealing) for resin infusion on a mold of significant size (8’ x 20’ x 6’).

Operation and Equivalent Loads of Wind Turbines in Large Wind Farms

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Soren Juhl; Sorensen, Jens Norkaer; Mikkelsen, Robert Flemming

2017-11-01

Wind farms continue to grow in size and as the technology matures, the design of wind farms move towards including dynamic effects besides merely annual power production estimates. The unsteady operation of wind turbines in large wind farms has been modelled with EllipSys3D(Michelsen, 1992, and Sørensen, 1995) for a number of different scenarios using a fully coupled large eddy simulations(LES) and aero-elastic framework. The turbines are represented in the flow fields using the actuator line method(Sørensen and Shen, 2002), where the aerodynamic forces and deflections are derived from an aero-elastic code, Flex5(Øye, 1996). The simulations constitute a database of full turbine operation in terms of both production and loads for various wind speeds, turbulence intensities, and turbine spacings. The operating conditions are examined in terms of averaged power production and thrust force, as well as 10min equivalent flapwise bending, yaw, and tilt moment loads. The analyses focus on how the performance and loads change throughout a given farm as well as comparing how various input parameters affect the operation and loads of the wind turbines during different scenarios. COMWIND(Grant 2104-09- 067216/DSF), Nordic Consortium on Optimization and Control of Wind Farms, Eurotech Greentech Wind project, Winds2Loads, and CCA LES. Ressources Granted on SNIC and JESS. The Vestas NM80 turbine has been used.

Wind lens technology and its application to wind and water turbine and beyond

OpenAIRE

Ohya Yuji; Karasudani Takashi; Nagai Tomoyuki; Watanabe Koichi

2017-01-01

Wind lens is a new type of wind power system consisting of a simple brimmed ring structure that surrounds the rotor causing greater wind to pass through the turbine. As a consequence, the turbine's efficiency of capturing energy from the wind gets dramatically increased. A Wind lens turbine can generate 2–5 times the power of an existing wind turbine given at the same rotor diameter and incoming wind speed. This fluid dynamical effect is also effective in the water. We have developed 1–3 kW W...

A novel floating offshore wind turbine concept

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vita, Luca; Schmidt Paulsen, Uwe; Friis Pedersen, Troels

2009-01-01

This paper will present a novel concept of a floating offshore wind turbine. The new concept is intended for vertical-axis wind turbine technology. The main purpose is to increase simplicity and to reduce total costs of an installed offshore wind farm. The concept is intended for deep water...... and large size turbines....

Power source evaluation capabilities at Sandia National Laboratories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doughty, D.H.; Butler, P.C.

1996-04-01

Sandia National Laboratories maintains one of the most comprehensive power source characterization facilities in the U.S. National Laboratory system. This paper describes the capabilities for evaluation of fuel cell technologies. The facility has a rechargeable battery test laboratory and a test area for performing nondestructive and functional computer-controlled testing of cells and batteries.

Capturing the journey of wind from the wind turbines (poster)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giyanani, A.H.; Bierbooms, W.A.A.M.; Van Bussel, G.J.W.

2015-01-01

Wind turbine design, control strategies often assume Taylor’s frozen turbulence where the fluctuating part of the wind is assumed to be constant. In practise, the wind turbine faces higher turbulence in case of gusts and lower turbulence in some cases. With Lidar technology, the frozen turbulence

Minimum Thrust Load Control for Floating Wind Turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Søren; Bak, Thomas; Knudsen, Torben

2012-01-01

— Offshore wind energy capitalizes on the higher and less turbulent wind at sea. Shallow water sites are profitable for deployment of monopile wind turbines at water depths of up to 30 meters. Beyond 30 meters, the wind is even stronger and less turbulent. At these depths, floating wind turbines be...... and power stability when using the new control strategy.......— Offshore wind energy capitalizes on the higher and less turbulent wind at sea. Shallow water sites are profitable for deployment of monopile wind turbines at water depths of up to 30 meters. Beyond 30 meters, the wind is even stronger and less turbulent. At these depths, floating wind turbines...... presents a new minimum thrust control strategy capable of stabilizing a floating wind turbine. The new control strategy explores the freedom of variable generator speed above rated wind speed. A comparison to the traditional constant speed strategy, shows improvements in structural fore-aft oscillations...

Site calibration for the wind turbine performance evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nam, Yoon Su; Yoo, Neung Soo; Lee, Jung Wan

2004-01-01

The accurate wind speed information at the hub height of a wind turbine is very essential to the exact estimation of the wind turbine power performance testing. Several method on the site calibration, which is a technique to estimate the wind speed at the wind turbine's hub height based on the measured wind data using a reference meteorological mast, are introduced. A site calibration result and the wind resource assessment for the TaeKwanRyung test site are presented using three-month wind data from a reference meteorological mast and the other mast temporarily installed at the site of wind turbine. Besides, an analysis on the uncertainty allocation for the wind speed correction using site calibration is performed

Radar Cross Section (RCS) Simulation for Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

2013-06-01

wind turbines are unsafe to operate. Also, helical wind turbines generally have less environmental concerns such as killing birds , especially in...SECTION (RCS) SIMULATION FOR WIND TURBINES by Cuong Ton June 2013 Thesis Advisor: David C. Jenn Second Reader: Ric Romero THIS PAGE...TITLE AND SUBTITLE RADAR CROSS SECTION (RCS) SIMULATION FOR WIND TURBINES 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S) Cuong Ton 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION

Comparative study of Danish and foreign wind turbine economics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Godtfredsen, F.

1993-02-01

This comparative study indicates that Denmark still is the leading nation in wind turbine technology in regard to economics as well as energy output and nacelle weight per swept rotor area. For roughness class 1, the levellized socioeconomic costs of wind power from Danish wind turbines is DKK 0.396 - 0.536 per kWh compared with production costs of DKK 0.525 for the most economic of the foreign wind turbines investigated. Furthermore it is pointed out, that there seems to be no correlation between generator capacity or swept rotor area and costs of windpower for the wind turbines investigated. Nevertheless there are arguments for the statement that large scale wind turbines will be relatively more economic in the future. Danish wind turbine manufacturers only produce tree-bladed, stall- or pitch regulated wind turbines with constant rotational speed. In Holland, Germany and UK two-bladed wind turbines and turbines with variable speed has been introduced. Still the new concepts are less economic, but not without future interest. (au)

High-efficiency wind turbine

Science.gov (United States)

Hein, L. A.; Myers, W. N.

1980-01-01

Vertical axis wind turbine incorporates several unique features to extract more energy from wind increasing efficiency 20% over conventional propeller driven units. System also features devices that utilize solar energy or chimney effluents during periods of no wind.

Fatigue-Damage Estimation and Control for Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barradas Berglind, Jose de Jesus

How can fatigue-damage for control of wind turbines be represented? Fatigue-damage is indeed a crucial factor in structures such as wind turbines that are exposed to turbulent and rapidly changing wind flow conditions. This is relevant both in their design stage and during the control......, the inclusion of fatigue-damage within feedback control loops is of special interest. Four strategies in total are proposed in this work: three for the wind turbine level and one for the wind farm level. On one hand, the three strategies in the turbine level are based on hysteresis operators and strive......-damage estimation in wind turbine components, to the mixed objective operation of wind energy conversion systems, and to the synthesis of control strategies that include hysteresis operators....

Aerodynamical noise from wind turbine generators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jakobsen, J.; Andersen, B.

1993-06-01

Two extensive measurement series of noise from wind turbines have been made during different modifications of their rotors. One series focused on the influence from the tip shape on the noise, while the other series dealt with the influence from the trailing edge. The experimental layout for the two investigations was identical. The total A-weighted noise from the wind turbine was measured in 1/3 octave bands from 50 Hz to 10 kHz in 1-minute periods simultaneously with wind speed measurements. The microphone was mounted on a hard board on the ground about 40 m directly downwind of the wind turbine, and the wind speed meter was placed at the same distance upwind of the wind turbine 10 m above ground. Regression analysis was made between noise and wind speed in each 1/3 octave band to determine the spectrum at 8 m/s. During the measurements care was taken to avoid influence from background noise, and the influence from machinery noise was minimized and corrected for. Thus the results display the aerodynamic rotor noise from the wind turbines. By use of this measurement technique, the uncertainty has been reduced to 1.5 - 2 dB per 1/3 octave band in the relevant frequency range and to about 1 dB on the total A-weighted levels. (au) (10 refs.)

DAC with LQR Control Design for Pitch Regulated Variable Speed Wind Turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Imran, Raja Muhammad; Hussain, Dil Muhammad Akbar; Soltani, Mohsen

2014-01-01

Disturbance Accommodation Control (DAC) is used to model and simulate a system with known disturbance waveform. This paper presents a control scheme to mitigate the effect of disturbances by using collective pitch control for the aboverated wind speed (Region III) for a variable speed wind turbine....... We have used Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) to obtain full state feedback gain, disturbance feedback gain is calculated independently and then estimator gain is achieved by poleplacement technique in the DAC augmented plant model. The reduced order model (two-mass model) of wind turbine is used...... and 5MW National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) wind turbine is used in this research. We have shown comparison of results relating to pitch angle, drive train torsion and generator speed obtained by a PID controller and DAC. Simulations are performed in MATLAB/Simulink. The results are compared...

Prediction models for wind speed at turbine locations in a wind farm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Torben; Bak, Thomas; Soltani, Mohsen

2011-01-01

In wind farms, individual turbines disturb the wind field by generating wakes that influence other turbines in the farm. From a control point of view, there is an interest in dynamic optimization of the balance between fatigue and production, and an understanding of the relationship between turbines...... on standard turbine measurements such as rotor speed and power produced, an effective wind speed, which represents the wind field averaged over the rotor disc, is derived. The effective wind speed estimator is based on a continuous–discrete extended Kalman filter that takes advantage of nonlinear time varying...... on the result related to effective wind speed, it is possible to predict wind speeds at neighboring turbines, with a separation of over 700 m, up to 1 min ahead reducing the error by 30% compared with a persistence method. The methodological results are demonstrated on data from an off-shore wind farm...

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A 1/3 SCALE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE FOR ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Altab Md. Hossain

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This research describes the electrical power generation in Malaysia by the measurement of wind velocity acting on the wind turbine technology. The primary purpose of the measurement over the 1/3 scaled prototype vertical axis wind turbine for the wind velocity is to predict the performance of full scaled H-type vertical axis wind turbine. The electrical power produced by the wind turbine is influenced by its two major part, wind power and belt power transmission system. The blade and the drag area system are used to determine the powers of the wind that can be converted into electric power as well as the belt power transmission system. In this study both wind power and belt power transmission system has been considered. A set of blade and drag devices have been designed for the 1/3 scaled wind turbine at the Thermal Laboratory of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL. Test has been carried out on the wind turbine with the different wind velocities of 5.89 m/s, 6.08 m/s and 7.02 m/s. From the experiment, the wind power has been calculated as 132.19 W, 145.40 W and 223.80 W. The maximum wind power is considered in the present study.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A 1/3 SCALE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE FOR ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Altab Hossain

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This research describes the electrical power generation in Malaysia by the measurement of wind velocity acting on the wind turbine technology. The primary purpose of the measurement over the 1/3 scaled prototype vertical axis wind turbine for the wind velocity is to predict the performance of full scaled H-type vertical axis wind turbine. The electrical power produced by the wind turbine is influenced by its two major part, wind power and belt power transmission system. The blade and the drag area system are used to determine the powers of the wind that can be converted into electric power as well as the belt power transmission system. In this study both wind power and belt power transmission system has been considered. A set of blade and drag devices have been designed for the 1/3 scaled wind turbine at the Thermal Laboratory of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL. Test has been carried out on the wind turbine with the different wind velocities of 5.89 m/s, 6.08 m/s and 7.02 m/s. From the experiment, the wind power has been calculated as 132.19 W, 145.40 W and 223.80 W. The maximum wind power is considered in the present study.

A wind turbine hybrid simulation framework considering aeroelastic effects

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Wei; Su, Weihua

2015-04-01

In performing an effective structural analysis for wind turbine, the simulation of turbine aerodynamic loads is of great importance. The interaction between the wake flow and the blades may impact turbine blades loading condition, energy yield and operational behavior. Direct experimental measurement of wind flow field and wind profiles around wind turbines is very helpful to support the wind turbine design. However, with the growth of the size of wind turbines for higher energy output, it is not convenient to obtain all the desired data in wind-tunnel and field tests. In this paper, firstly the modeling of dynamic responses of large-span wind turbine blades will consider nonlinear aeroelastic effects. A strain-based geometrically nonlinear beam formulation will be used for the basic structural dynamic modeling, which will be coupled with unsteady aerodynamic equations and rigid-body rotations of the rotor. Full wind turbines can be modeled by using the multi-connected beams. Then, a hybrid simulation experimental framework is proposed to potentially address this issue. The aerodynamic-dominant components, such as the turbine blades and rotor, are simulated as numerical components using the nonlinear aeroelastic model; while the turbine tower, where the collapse of failure may occur under high level of wind load, is simulated separately as the physical component. With the proposed framework, dynamic behavior of NREL's 5MW wind turbine blades will be studied and correlated with available numerical data. The current work will be the basis of the authors' further studies on flow control and hazard mitigation on wind turbine blades and towers.

Floating Foundations for Offshore Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Morten Thøtt

The concept of harnessing the power of the wind dates all the way back to the first ships traversing the seas. Later, windmills enabled the use of wind power for industrial purposes. Since then, technology has allowed the production of clean renewable energy through the use of wind turbines....... These turbines have traditionally been placed on land, but several factors have urged a move to offshore locations. Now the boundaries are being pushed into deeper and deeper waters, where the idea of floating offshore wind turbines has emerged. In less than a decade, these have gone from scattered small...

Rotating transformers in wind turbine applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hylander, J. [Chalmers Univ. of Technology, Goeteborg (Sweden); Engstroem, S. [Aegir konsult AB, Lidingoe (Sweden)

1996-12-01

The power consumption of rotating electrical components is often supplied via slip-rings in wind turbines. Slip-ring equipment is expensive and need maintenance and are prone to malfunction. If the slip-rings could be replaced with contact-less equipment better turbines could be designed. This paper presents the design, some FE calculations and some measurements on a prototype rotating transformer. The proposed transformer consists of a secondary rotating winding and a stationary exciting primary winding. The results indicate that this transformer could be used to replace slip-rings in wind turbines. 4 refs, 3 figs

Wind turbines - generating noise or electricity?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russell, Eric

1999-01-01

Wind turbine technology has made great strides in the past few years. Annual energy output is up by two orders of magnitude and nacelle weight and noise has been halved. Computational fluid dynamics has paid a part in advancing knowledge of air flow and turbulence around wind generators. Current research is focused on how to increase turbine size and improve efficiency. A problem is that while larger wind turbines will produce cheaper electricity, the noise problem will mean that the number of acceptable sites will decrease. The biggest wind generators will need about 800 m clearance from the nearest house. (UK)

Wind turbine remote control using Android devices

Science.gov (United States)

Rat, C. L.; Panoiu, M.

2018-01-01

This paper describes the remote control of a wind turbine system over the internet using an Android device, namely a tablet or a smartphone. The wind turbine workstation contains a LabVIEW program which monitors the entire wind turbine energy conversion system (WECS). The Android device connects to the LabVIEW application, working as a remote interface to the wind turbine. The communication between the devices needs to be secured because it takes place over the internet. Hence, the data are encrypted before being sent through the network. The scope was the design of remote control software capable of visualizing real-time wind turbine data through a secure connection. Since the WECS is fully automated and no full-time human operator exists, unattended access to the turbine workstation is needed. Therefore the device must not require any confirmation or permission from the computer operator in order to control it. Another condition is that Android application does not have any root requirements.

Power supplies for space systems quality assurance by Sandia Laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hannigan, R.L.; Harnar, R.R.

1976-07-01

The Sandia Laboratories' participation in Quality Assurance programs for Radioisotopic Thermoelectric Generators which have been used in space systems over the past 10 years is summarized. Basic elements of this QA program are briefly described and recognition of assistance from other Sandia organizations is included. Descriptions of the various systems for which Sandia has had the QA responsibility are presented, including SNAP 19 (Nimbus, Pioneer, Viking), SNAP 27 (Apollo), Transit, Multi-Hundred Watt (LES 8/9 and MJS), and a new program, High-Performance Generator Mod 3. The outlook for Sandia participation in RTG programs for the next several years is noted

Power Curve of the AWEC-60 wind turbine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avia, F.

1992-01-01

The experimental wind turbine AWEC-60 was developed to evaluate the possibilities of the Large Wind turbines, from the technical and economical point of view. The project was developed by a spanish-german group, integrated by Union Fenosa, Asinel, M.A.N. Neue Technologie and the Instituto de Energias Renovables from CIEMAT, starting the operation during the year 1990. In this paper, the obtention of the wind turbine power curve is presented, which has been obtained in agreement with the Recommended Practices for Wind Turbine Testing and Evaluation from the Executive Committee for the Research and Development on Wind Energy, of the International Energy Agency (AIE). Using the functioning data of the wind turbine correspondig to the first quarter of the year 1991, the power curves have been obtained, and the results have been compared with the curves measured in other similar Large wind turbines. (Author) 7 refs

Market experiences with small wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van Deijl, T.J.

1990-01-01

An overview is given of the marketing experiences of Lagerwey Windturbines with the exploitation of small wind turbines. Attention is paid to the market mechanisms which effect the sale and implementation of small wind turbines: payback of surplus power, provincial and regional subsidies, grid connection costs, energy prices, and flexible solutions for grid connections. Also problems with municipalities with regard to regulations or construction licenses are discussed. Some recommendations are given to stimulate the market for small wind turbines. 1 fig., 1 ref

Small Wind Research Turbine: Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Corbus, D.; Meadors, M.

2005-10-01

The Small Wind Research Turbine (SWRT) project was initiated to provide reliable test data for model validation of furling wind turbines and to help understand small wind turbine loads. This report will familiarize the user with the scope of the SWRT test and support the use of these data. In addition to describing all the testing details and results, the report presents an analysis of the test data and compares the SWRT test data to simulation results from the FAST aeroelastic simulation model.

Some aspects on wind turbines monitoring. General considerations and loads on horizontal wind turbines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cuerva, A.

1996-01-01

The concept Monitoring applied to the Wind Energy technology is similar to the definition used in other branches of Science or Engineering, this is knowing values of variables which have to do with a mechanic system, in our case a wind turbine. These mentioned parameters may have different relationships to our wind turbine; some of them come from the environment the machine is operating in, others, are a measure of how properly the machine is working, and finally, the rest are an assessment of the systems health during its life. In this chapter we will answer questions such as: What do we need to measure? Why is Monitoring mandatory (from the different points of view of people involved in this world)? How can we measure a wind turbine depending on our objectives (Technic, tools, guidance, recommendations, etc.)? And finally What can we expect in the near future? The author wants the reader to keep the idea in mind that Monitoring means the richest and most accurate knowledge on wind turbine's operation (Its environment, performances or health). This is the first step that allows us to optimize the operation mode of the machine and improve it (design, manufacturing, even the used modeling tools). When there is so much money involved, this fact becomes a must. (Author)

Design of a wind turbine-generator system considering the conformability to wind velocity fluctuations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wakui, Tetsuya; Hashizume, Takumi; Outa, Eisuke

1999-07-01

The conformability of the rated power output of the wind turbine-generator system and of the wind turbine type to wind velocity fluctuations are investigated with a simulation model. The authors examine three types of wind turbines: the Darrieus-Savonius hybrid, the Darrieus proper and the Propeller. These systems are mainly operated at a constant tip speed ratio, which refers to a maximum power coefficient points. As a computed result of the net extracting power, the Darrieus turbine proper has little conformability to wind velocity fluctuations because of its output characteristics. As for the other turbines, large-scale systems do not always have an advantage over small-scale systems as the effect of its dynamic characteristics. Furthermore, it is confirmed that the net extracting power of the Propeller turbine, under wind direction fluctuation, is much reduced when compared with the hybrid wind turbine. Thus, the authors conclude that the appropriate rated power output of the system exists with relation to the wind turbine type for each wind condition.

Vertical-axial component wind turbine with a high coefficient using for wind energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yersin, Ch. Sh.; Manatbev, R.K.; Yersina, A. K.; Tulepbergenov, A. K.

2012-01-01

The report presents the results of research and development on of promising wind units carousel type with a high ratio utilization of wind energy. This devices use a well-known invention – the wind turbine Darrieus. The rotation of the turbine is due to the action of ascensional power to aerodynamic well-streamlined symmetrical about the chord wing profiles of NASA, which are working wind turbine blades. The shaft rotation can be connected with the working blades of one of two ways: using the “swings” or the way “troposkino”. Darrieus turbine has a ratio utilization of wind energy xmax=045. Despite the fact that this is a good indicator of the efficiency of the turbine working, the proposed option allows us to significantly increase the value of this coefficient. The bases methodology of this research is a method of technical and technological research and development design of prospective wind energy construction (WES). Key words: wind turbine, the blade, coefficient utilization of wind energy

Fault ride-through capability of DFIG wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, Anca D. [Risoe National Laboratory, Wind Energy Department, P.O. Box 49, DK-4000 Roskilde (Denmark); Michalke, Gabriele [Darmstadt University, Institute for Electrical Power Systems, Landgraf-Georg-Strasse 4, 64283 Darmstadt (Germany)

2007-07-15

This paper concentrates on the fault ride-through capability of doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) wind turbines. The main attention in the paper is, therefore, drawn to the control of the DFIG wind turbine and of its power converter and to the ability to protect itself without disconnection during grid faults. The paper provides also an overview on the interaction between variable-speed DFIG wind turbines and the power system subjected to disturbances, such as short circuit faults. The dynamic model of DFIG wind turbine includes models for both mechanical components as well as for all electrical components, controllers and for the protection device of DFIG necessary during grid faults. The viewpoint of the paper is to carry out different simulations to provide insight and understanding of the grid fault impact on both DFIG wind turbines and on the power system itself. The dynamic behaviour of DFIG wind turbines during grid faults is simulated and assessed by using a transmission power system generic model developed and delivered by the Danish Transmission System Operator Energinet.dk in the power system simulation toolbox PowerFactory DIgSILENT. The data for the wind turbines are not linked to a specific manufacturer, but are representative for the turbine and generator type used in variable-speed DFIG wind turbines with pitch control. (author)

Annoyance, detection and recognition of wind turbine noise.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Renterghem, Timothy; Bockstael, Annelies; De Weirt, Valentine; Botteldooren, Dick

2013-07-01

Annoyance, recognition and detection of noise from a single wind turbine were studied by means of a two-stage listening experiment with 50 participants with normal hearing abilities. In-situ recordings made at close distance from a 1.8-MW wind turbine operating at 22 rpm were mixed with road traffic noise, and processed to simulate indoor sound pressure levels at LAeq 40 dBA. In a first part, where people were unaware of the true purpose of the experiment, samples were played during a quiet leisure activity. Under these conditions, pure wind turbine noise gave very similar annoyance ratings as unmixed highway noise at the same equivalent level, while annoyance by local road traffic noise was significantly higher. In a second experiment, listeners were asked to identify the sample containing wind turbine noise in a paired comparison test. The detection limit of wind turbine noise in presence of highway noise was estimated to be as low as a signal-to-noise ratio of -23 dBA. When mixed with local road traffic, such a detection limit could not be determined. These findings support that noticing the sound could be an important aspect of wind turbine noise annoyance at the low equivalent levels typically observed indoors in practice. Participants that easily recognized wind-turbine(-like) sounds could detect wind turbine noise better when submersed in road traffic noise. Recognition of wind turbine sounds is also linked to higher annoyance. Awareness of the source is therefore a relevant aspect of wind turbine noise perception which is consistent with previous research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Active control: Wind turbine model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bindner, Henrik

1999-07-01

This report is a part of the reporting of the work done in the project `Active Control of Wind Turbines`. This project aim is to develop a simulation model for design of control systems for turbines with pitch control and to use that model to design controllers. This report describes the model developed for controller design and analysis. Emphasis has been put on establishment of simple models describing the dynamic behavior of the wind turbine in adequate details for controller design. This has been done with extensive use of measurements as the basis for selection of model complexity and model validation as well as parameter estimation. The model includes a simple model of the structure of the turbine including tower and flapwise blade bending, a detailed model of the gear box and induction generator, a linearized aerodynamic model including modelling of induction lag and actuator and sensor models. The models are all formulated as linear differential equations. The models are validated through comparisons with measurements performed on a Vestas WD 34 400 kW wind turbine. It is shown from a control point of view simple linear models can be used to describe the dynamic behavior of a pitch controlled wind turbine. The model and the measurements corresponds well in the relevant frequency range. The developed model is therefore applicable for controller design. (au) EFP-91. 18 ills., 22 refs.

DESALINATION AND WATER TREATMENT RESEARCH AT SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rigali, Mark J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Miller, James E. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Altman, Susan J. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Biedermann, Laura [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Brady, Patrick Vane. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kuzio, Stephanie P. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Nenoff, Tina M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Rempe, Susan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2016-11-01

Water is the backbone of our economy - safe and adequate supplies of water are vital for agriculture, industry, recreation, and human consumption. While our supply of water today is largely safe and adequate, we as a nation face increasing water supply challenges in the form of extended droughts, demand growth due to population increase, more stringent health-based regulation, and competing demands from a variety of users. To meet these challenges in the coming decades, water treatment technologies, including desalination, will contribute substantially to ensuring a safe, sustainable, affordable, and adequate water supply for the United States. This overview documents Sandia National Laboratories' (SNL, or Sandia) Water Treatment Program which focused on the development and demonstration of advanced water purification technologies as part of the larger Sandia Water Initiative. Projects under the Water Treatment Program include: (1) the development of desalination research roadmaps (2) our efforts to accelerate the commercialization of new desalination and water treatment technologies (known as the 'Jump-Start Program),' (3) long range (high risk, early stage) desalination research (known as the 'Long Range Research Program'), (4) treatment research projects under the Joint Water Reuse & Desalination Task Force, (5) the Arsenic Water Technology Partnership Program, (6) water treatment projects funded under the New Mexico Small Business Administration, (7) water treatment projects for the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), (8) Sandia- developed contaminant-selective treatment technologies, and finally (9) current Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funded desalination projects.

Tjæreborg Wind Turbine

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Øye, Stig

1991-01-01

This paper presents results from the fourth measurement camapign at the Tjæreborg (Tjaereborg) WInd Turbine during operation with stepwise pitch angle changes. The measurements cover one hour of operation at wind speeds between 7 and 10 m/s aceraging approximately 8.7 m/s.......This paper presents results from the fourth measurement camapign at the Tjæreborg (Tjaereborg) WInd Turbine during operation with stepwise pitch angle changes. The measurements cover one hour of operation at wind speeds between 7 and 10 m/s aceraging approximately 8.7 m/s....

The application of suction caisson technology to offshore wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2005-09-15

A mathematical model describing the behaviour of caisson foundations for offshore wind turbines has been developed. The model has been verified and calibrated through laboratory and field work. Simultaneously, conceptual designs of wind turbine foundations incorporating suction caissons were studied using the same model. It was concluded that much of the seabed around Britain is well suited to the use of caissons and monopod and quadropod structures are superior to tripods. Although suction caissons are vulnerable to scour, rock dumping can largely eliminate this potential problem. The next phase will be to install a fully instrumented full-scale prototype to monitor the effects of wind and waves. The main contractor was SLP Engineering Limited and about 75 per cent of the funding came from the DTI.

Operating wind turbines in strong wind conditions by using feedforward-feedback control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feng, Ju; Sheng, Wen Zhong

2014-01-01

Due to the increasing penetration of wind energy into power systems, it becomes critical to reduce the impact of wind energy on the stability and reliability of the overall power system. In precedent works, Shen and his co-workers developed a re-designed operation schema to run wind turbines in strong wind conditions based on optimization method and standard PI feedback control, which can prevent the typical shutdowns of wind turbines when reaching the cut-out wind speed. In this paper, a new control strategy combing the standard PI feedback control with feedforward controls using the optimization results is investigated for the operation of variable-speed pitch-regulated wind turbines in strong wind conditions. It is shown that the developed control strategy is capable of smoothening the power output of wind turbine and avoiding its sudden showdown at high wind speeds without worsening the loads on rotor and blades

Inverse load calculation procedure for offshore wind turbines and application to a 5-MW wind turbine support structure: Inverse load calculation procedure for offshore wind turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pahn, T. [Pahn Ingenieure, Am Seegraben 17b 03051 Cottbus Germany; Rolfes, R. [Institut f?r Statik und Dynamik, Leibniz Universit?t Hannover, Appelstra?e 9A 30167 Hannover Germany; Jonkman, J. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway Golden Colorado 80401 USA

2017-02-20

A significant number of wind turbines installed today have reached their designed service life of 20 years, and the number will rise continuously. Most of these turbines promise a more economical performance if they operate for more than 20 years. To assess a continued operation, we have to analyze the load-bearing capacity of the support structure with respect to site-specific conditions. Such an analysis requires the comparison of the loads used for the design of the support structure with the actual loads experienced. This publication presents the application of a so-called inverse load calculation to a 5-MW wind turbine support structure. The inverse load calculation determines external loads derived from a mechanical description of the support structure and from measured structural responses. Using numerical simulations with the software fast, we investigated the influence of wind-turbine-specific effects such as the wind turbine control or the dynamic interaction between the loads and the support structure to the presented inverse load calculation procedure. fast is used to study the inverse calculation of simultaneously acting wind and wave loads, which has not been carried out until now. Furthermore, the application of the inverse load calculation procedure to a real 5-MW wind turbine support structure is demonstrated. In terms of this practical application, setting up the mechanical system for the support structure using measurement data is discussed. The paper presents results for defined load cases and assesses the accuracy of the inversely derived dynamic loads for both the simulations and the practical application.