Adaptive Individual Blade Pitch Control of an Ocean Current Turbine for Load Reduction

Other · Tue Apr 18 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · FAU Undergraduate Research Journal

OSTI ID:1986593

Lee, Louis M ^[1]; VanZwieten, James H ^[2]

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1. Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, FL (United States); Florida Atlantic University
2. Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, FL (United States)

A Direct Adaptive Disturbance Rejection (DADR) control algorithm is evaluated using a numer-ical simulation of an Ocean Current Turbine (OCT) for its ability to minimize the cyclic loadings on the rotor blades caused by current shear. This control algorithm reduces these cyclic loadings by individually altering the pitch angles of the rotor blades as a function of rotor rotation angle. The OCT numerical model represents a system with a single 3 bladed 20 meter diameter rotor operated in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for mean and maximum measured current shear values of 0.004 and 0.03 (m/s)/m. The results indicate that the adaptive controller reduced the amplitude of the cyclic axial blade loads on a rigidly mounted and moored turbine by 91.18% and 92.3% in the mean current shear and by 94.12% and 81.88% in maximum current shear demonstrating the value of this controls approach.

• Research Organization: Florida Atlantic Univ., Boca Raton, FL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office; NSF
• DOE Contract Number: EE0004200
• OSTI ID: 1986593
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

adaptive control
hydrokinetic power
individual blade pitch control
load reduction
marine renewable energy
ocean current energy
ocean current turbine