How to use wind turbine yaw controller

1. The yaw element

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  • This element emulates the yaw bearing.

  • The yaw element must be an extension of, or part of the tower.

  • The rotation prescribed by the yaw controller is applied as a relative rotation between the tower and the yaw element, and is applied in end 1 of the yaw element.

2. Add yaw element at the top of the tower

  • Make two new super nodes, e.g. 0.1 m above the tower top.

  • The lower one (yaw1) at the tower top, and the upper one (yaw2) 0.1 m above.

  • Yaw1 must be slave to the tower top, yaw2 is free.

  • Set shaft end 2 (sh_sn2) as slave to yaw2.

  • Make a new line (yawline), between yaw1 and yaw2, and assign a line type and cross section (stiff)

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3. Set controller parameters

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  • See RIFLEX user manual for explanation of the parameters. Some more guidance for selecting the parameters is given here:

    • Time step: Most numerically stable to set same as integration time step

    • Set point: Normally 0, unless yaw misalignment is desired

    • Error threshold: Threshold for when to start correcting yaw misalignment. Note that this is not a specific yaw angle, but an integrated yaw error squared (i.e. small angle + long time or large angle + short time). For fast response, select a low value.

  • Reference line: Tower, in most cases. The yaw line must be an extension of the reference line, with codirectional x-axis.

  • Yaw line: Yaw line created in previous section.

4. Post processing

  • There’s no yaw angle output from the controller.

  • Store the nodal position of the hub (dynamic calculation parameters)

  • Plot the shaft orientation using the atan2 function

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5. Fixed wind turbine with EDC

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6. New feature: Nacelle yaw control

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  • Nacelle yaw control for wind turbines.

  • Yaw bearing emulated as prescribed relative rotation between the tower and the yaw element.

  • Internal controller logics only.

  • Controller logics as described by :

  • Mulders, S. P., and J. W. van Wingerden. "Delft Research Controller: an open-source and community-driven wind turbine baseline controller." Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Vol. 1037. No. 3. IOP Publishing, 2018.

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