A Pitch Angle Controller Based on Novel Fuzzy-PI Control for Wind Turbine Load Reduction

• Main Authors: Bofeng Xu, Yue Yuan, Haoming Liu, Peng Jiang, Ziqi Gao, Xiang Shen, Xin Cai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: wind turbine; fuzzy rules; Fuzzy-PI control; load reduction; pitch angle controller
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6086

A novel fuzzy rule is proposed to adopt a positive pitch strategy when the error between the measured and rated generator speed becomes large and continues to increase, and to adopt a negative pitch strategy when the error is small. The improved approach is introduced into the normal Fuzzy-Proportional-Integral (Fuzzy-PI) control strategy by dividing the fuzzy rules into four areas and analyzing the design method for each area. Furthermore, a low pass filter is used to reduce the ultimate loads of the pitch driver caused by the novel fuzzy rules. The modeling of the wind turbine load under turbulent wind conditions is conducted in GH Bladed, and MATLAB/Simulink is used to interact with the modeling to verify the novel Fuzzy-PI control. The results show that, compared with normal Fuzzy-PI control, the novel Fuzzy-PI control can greatly reduce the ultimate loads and fatigue loads of the pitch driver. The novel Fuzzy-PI control not only reduces the extremum of power deviation, but also decreases some ultimate loads and fatigue loads of the tower base and the blade root. It can reduce these loads by up to 21.53% under the normal turbulent wind condition and by up to 18.14% under the extreme turbulent wind condition.