Wind turbine air deflector system control

Abstract

One or more controllers may perform one or more methods to control one or more air deflector units of one or more wind turbine rotor blades. The methods include per-blade control methods that may be performed, e.g., to reduce blade loading caused by wind gusts. The methods also include collective control methods that may be performed, e.g., to reduce tower motion and/or rotor speed.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 receiving speed data indicative of rotational speed of a rotating wind turbine rotor, the rotor including multiple blades, each of the blades including a plurality of air deflector units and a plurality of load sensors configured along a root-to-tip length of the blade, the air deflector units of the blades having a current collective deployment configuration; 
 the speed data received from a source separate from the load sensors; 
 generating a first data value based at least in part on. the speed data and individual load values from the sensors as a function of radial distance of each sensor from the root; 
 determining an updated collective deployment configuration of the air deflector units of the blades based on the first data value and generating actuator commands, based at least in part on the first data value, to at least one of the air deflector units of each of the blades to implement the updated collective deployment configuration; 
 transmitting the actuator commands; 
 wherein generating the first data value comprises subtracting a speed reference value from a pre-subtraction data value, the pre-subtraction data value based at least in part on the speed data, and applying an additional control subroutine to a result of the subtracting; and 
 wherein applying the control subroutine comprises identifying a gain schedule based on a pitch value, and wherein the pitch value is based at least in part on a data value indicative of pitch of the blades. 
 
     
     
       2. A method comprising:
 receiving speed data indicative of rotational speed of a rotating wind turbine rotor, the rotor including multiple blades, each of the blades including a plurality of air deflector units and a plurality of load sensors configured along a root-to-tip length of the blade, the air deflector units of the blades having a current collective deployment configuration; 
 the speed data received from a source separate from the load sensors; 
 generating a first data value based at least in part on the speed data and individual load values from the sensors as a function of radial distance of each sensor from the root; 
 determining an updated collective deployment configuration of the air deflector units of the blades based on the first data value and generating actuator commands, based at least in part on the first data value, to at least one of the air deflector units of each of the blades to implement the updated collective deployment configuration; 
 transmitting the actuator commands; 
 wherein the collective deployment configuration includes a collective combined deployment configuration and separate per-blade deployment configurations corresponding to the blades, wherein each of the per-blade deployment configurations is based at least in part on load sensor data from the corresponding blade; and 
 wherein determining the combined deployment configuration comprises, for each of the blades, a group-basis determination based on one of a maximum, a minimum, a sum or an average of the requirements of the collective deployment configuration and the requirements of the per-blade deployment configuration corresponding to the blade. 
 
     
     
       3. A method comprising:
 receiving speed data indicative of rotational speed of a rotating wind turbine rotor, the rotor including multiple blades, each of the blades including a plurality of air deflector units and a plurality of load sensors configured along a root-to-tip length of the blade, the air deflector units of the blades having a current collective deployment configuration; 
 the speed data received from a source separate from the load sensors; 
 generating a first data value based at least in part on the speed data and individual load values from the sensors as a function of radial distance of each sensor from the root; 
 determining an updated collective deployment configuration of the air deflector units of the blades based on the first data value and generating actuator commands, based at least in part on the first data value, to at least one of the air deflector units of each of the blades to implement the updated collective deployment configuration; 
 transmitting the actuator commands; 
 wherein the collective deployment configuration includes a collective combined deployment configuration and separate per-blade deployment configurations corresponding to the blades, wherein each of the per-blade deployment configurations is based at least in part on load sensor data from the corresponding blade; 
 wherein each of the separate per-blade deployment configurations corresponds to a value calculated in a per-blade control method performed for the corresponding blade; and 
 wherein each of the per-blade control methods comprises the following for the blade corresponding to the per-blade control method
 receiving sensor data indicative of a current loading condition of the corresponding blade from the sensors distributed along a root-to-tip length of the blade, and wherein the sensor data comprises a separate sensor value corresponding to each of the multiple sensors, 
 obtaining a set of error values by subtracting a different one of multiple threshold scalar values from each of multiple different threshold adjustment inputs, each of the threshold adjustment inputs comprising a value based at least in part on a different one of the sensor values, and 
 summing values based at least in part on the set of error values to obtain a first summed value, Wherein the per-blade deployment configuration for the corresponding blade is determined based at least in part on the first summed value. 
 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein each of the per-blade control methods further comprises the following for the blade corresponding to the per-blade control method.
 identifying, based on an input representative of an operating condition of a wind turbine, one of multiple gain schedules, and 
 multiplying each of multiple scalar values by a different one of multiple gain values in the identified gain schedule to obtain the multiple threshold scalar values.