The Impact of Pitch-To-Stall and Pitch-To-Feather Control on the Structural Loads and the Pitch Mechanism of a Wind Turbine

Arash E. Samani, Jeroen D. M. De Kooning, Nezmin Kayedpour, Narender Singh and Lieven Vandevelde
Additional contact information
Arash E. Samani: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park-Campus A, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 131, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium
Jeroen D. M. De Kooning: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park-Campus A, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 131, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium
Nezmin Kayedpour: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park-Campus A, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 131, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium
Narender Singh: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park-Campus A, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 131, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium
Lieven Vandevelde: Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Tech Lane Ghent Science Park-Campus A, Technologiepark Zwijnaarde 131, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: This article investigates the impact of the pitch-to-stall and pitch-to-feather control concepts on horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) with different blade designs. Pitch-to-feather control is widely used to limit the power output of wind turbines in high wind speed conditions. However, stall control has not been taken forward in the industry because of the low predictability of stalled rotor aerodynamics. Despite this drawback, this article investigates the possible advantages of this control concept when compared to pitch-to-feather control with an emphasis on the control performance and its impact on the pitch mechanism and structural loads. In this study, three HAWTs with different blade designs, i.e., untwisted, stall-regulated, and pitch-regulated blades, are investigated. The control system is validated in both uniform and turbulent wind speed. The results show that pitch-to-stall control enhances the constant power control for wind turbines with untwisted and stall-regulated blade designs. Stall control alleviates the fore-aft tower loading and the blades flapwise moment of the wind turbine with stall-regulated blades in uniform winds. However, in turbulent winds, the flapwise moment increases to a certain extent as compared to pitch-to-feather control. Moreover, pitch-to-stall control considerably reduces the summed blade pitch movement, despite that it increases the risk of surface damage in the rolling bearings due to oscillating movements with a small amplitude.

Keywords: pitch-to-stall; pitch-to-feather; pitch mechanism; structural loads (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4503/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4503/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:17:p:4503-:d:406970

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().