Lidar-enhanced closed-loop active helix approach

Abstract

The helix approach has shown potential in increasing wind farm power production through enhancing wake mixing. By applying periodic blade pitch signals to upstream turbines, a helical wake is generated, which reduces velocity deficits for downstream turbines and mitigates the wake effect. While promising, the closed-loop implementation of the helix approach remains largely unexplored, which could enable handling uncertainties and model errors in wind farm applications. This work presents a framework that integrates lidar-based wake measurements to enable such closed-loop control. First, a downwind-facing continuous-wave lidar is used to extract the hub vortex as the controlled variable. Second, we developed a control algorithm that regulates the hub vortex position in the helix frame, thereby controlling the helical wake. Simulations in QBlade show that the framework enables a real-time, flow-informed closed-loop wake mixing approach. Compared with the open-loop cases, the framework corrects the shear-induced steady-state wake bias and enables measurement-informed, dynamic pitch adjustments under turbulence. In shear, bias correction increases downstream power but raises structural loads on both turbines; under turbulence, dynamic pitch control delivers a modest farm-level power gain with only minor load increases. These outcomes highlight the promise of flow-informed, closed-loop wake-mixing control and motivate further investigation.