Wind Turbine Control System Segmentation for Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wind turbine control systems face challenges in maintaining error-free operation while minimizing downtime and maintenance efforts, often requiring significant technical effort and redundancy that does not significantly enhance fault tolerance.
Innovation Solution
A wind turbine control system with a critical control unit handling essential operations and a secondary control unit managing non-critical functions, such as data management and user interfaces, to reduce the risk of system failures and minimize computational load on critical components, using high-reliability hardware for critical functions and standard platforms for non-critical ones, with redundant features only where necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If each control module is dimensioned to provide high life-time to achieve maximum uninterrupted uptime, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is divided into a first control unit with critical control functions and a second control unit with non-critical control functions. This segmentation allows different reliability requirements to be applied to different parts of the system, avoiding the need to overdimension all components for maximum reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different quality levels are applied locally to different control units. The first control unit uses high-reliability components with guaranteed life-time for critical functions, while the second control unit can use standard components for non-critical functions, optimizing the balance between reliability and complexity.
2Reliability
If redundant features are provided in each module to ensure fault tolerance, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases without significant fault tolerance benefit
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the control system into critical and non-critical units, redundancy is applied only where necessary. The first control unit may have redundant critical control capabilities, while the second control unit does not need the same level of redundancy for non-critical functions.
Solution Approach 2:
Non-critical control functions are extracted from the first control unit and placed in the second control unit. This removes the need for redundant non-critical features in the first control unit, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining fault tolerance for critical functions.
3Ease of repair
If modularized sensor/actor/control units are used to enable independent replacement, then ease of repair is improved, but device complexity increases due to functional separation
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into independently replaceable first and second control units with distinct functional responsibilities. This allows the first control unit to be replaced without affecting the second control unit, simplifying maintenance while managing complexity through clear functional separation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A wind turbine control system with at least a first and a second control unit coupled to each other over a first network is provided. The first control unit is configured as a critical control unit, comprising a first set of functions comprising critical control functions for the operation of a wind turbine, and the second control unit is configured as a secondary control unit, comprising a second set of functions comprising non-critical control functions and data management functions.