Active Rotor Blade Add-on for Tower Clearance Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wind turbine blade designs face challenges in maintaining a reliable and safe minimal clearance between rotor blades and the wind turbine tower, particularly under changing wind conditions, as pitching blades to ensure clearance can lead to increased load on bearings and may not be fast enough to prevent collisions.
Innovation Solution
An adaptable airflow regulating system, comprising aerodynamically active surfaces like spoilers and flaps, is used to control blade deflection by reducing aerodynamic lift, ensuring a minimal distance between the rotor blades and the tower by determining the distance-related quantity and adjusting the airflow system accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blades are pitched to ensure minimal tower clearance, then blade tip to tower clearance is improved, but load on pitching bearings increases and response speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The blade is divided into multiple sections with independent airflow regulating systems (spoilers and flaps) that can be controlled separately. This allows localized control of blade deflection without requiring full blade pitching, thereby reducing the load on the pitching bearings while maintaining tower clearance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs dynamic control of airflow regulating systems that can adjust blade deflection in real-time based on operating conditions. This dynamic adjustment enables faster response to prevent blade-tower collision compared to conventional pitching methods, while the system adapts the control strategy to minimize bearing load.
2Reliability
If blades are pitched to ensure minimal tower clearance, then blade tip to tower clearance is improved, but response speed of clearance control decreases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the blade control into multiple independent airflow regulating systems distributed along the blade span, the patent enables parallel control actions that respond faster than conventional single-point pitching mechanisms. Each segment can be independently activated to provide immediate deflection control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the purely mechanical pitching system with a hybrid system that incorporates aerodynamic control surfaces (spoilers and flaps) actuated by airflow regulating mechanisms. This substitution enables faster response speed through aerodynamic action rather than mechanical pitching, while maintaining the same clearance control objective.
3Weight of moving object
If lighter/softer/longer blades are used, then blade deflection increases, but blade tip to tower clearance decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the aerodynamic parameters of the blade by deploying airflow regulating systems (spoilers and flaps) that modify the airflow characteristics over the blade sections. This allows the blade to maintain its structural properties while dynamically adjusting its aerodynamic behavior to control deflection and ensure tower clearance under various operating conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic aerodynamic control surfaces that can adjust the blade's effective stiffness and deflection characteristics in real-time. This dynamic adjustment compensates for the lighter blade construction by actively controlling airflow to maintain adequate tower clearance, rather than relying on heavier, stiffer blade designs.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively maintains a safe minimal distance between rotor blades and the wind turbine tower, reducing the load on pitching bearings and improving efficiency by allowing for faster control of blade deflection, thus preventing collisions and enhancing operational reliability.
Implementation Method 1
adapting the airflow regulating system such that an aerodynamic lift in at least a portion of the rotor blade is decreased
Data Source
AI summary
A method of controlling at least one adaptable airflow regulating system, in particular spoiler and/or flap, of at least one rotor blade of a wind turbine having a wind turbine tower includes: determining a quantity related to a distance between the rotor blade and the wind turbine tower; controlling the airflow regulating system based on the quantity.