Alleviating the tower mechanical load of Multi-MW wind turbines with LQR control

Abstract

This paper addresses linear quadratic regulation (LQR) for variable speed variable pitch wind turbines. Because of the inherent nonlinearity of wind turbines, a set of operating conditions is identified and then a LQR controller is designed for each of the operating points. The feedback controller gains are then interpolated linearly to get a control law for the entire operating region. In addition, the aerodynamic torque and effective wind speed are estimated online to get the gain-scheduling variable for implementing the controller. The potential of this method is verified through simulation with the help of MATLAB/Simulink and GH Bladed. The performance and mechanical load when using LQR are also compared with those obtained when using a PI controller.