4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)

Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008

Modeling, Simulation and Control of Wind Turbine

MONICA LEBA, EMIL POP, CAMELIA TABACARU-BARBU, MARIA POP
System Control, Applied Informatics and Computer Engineering Department
University of Petrosani
Str.Universitatii, nr.20, 332006, Petrosani
ROMANIA

Abstract: - In this paper the wind turbine system consisting of wind model, turbine, AC generator and
controller is considered. The main objective of this paper is to determine the wind turbine mathematical model,
validate it through simulation, and design an appropriate controller in order to offer a general point of view
regarding the home use of this type of clean energy production. Each part of the wind turbine is analyzed,
modeled and simulated. At the end of the paper these elements are connected together and the whole system is
modeled and simulated. The simulation results confirm the correctness of the developed mathematical models
and can be used for a better design of such systems.

Key-Words: - Wind turbine, modeling, simulation, controller

1 Introduction The important elements of a wind turbine,

In this paper, we will consider a wind turbine. The
wind turbines represent nowadays the most
widespread and efficient clean energy production
equipments, due to the following advantages:
ƒ Don’t need big investments comparing to same
power hydro plants;
ƒ Require moderate speed wind sources;
ƒ Are very useful for all types of locations,
including isolated areas;
ƒ Can autonomously function;
ƒ Represent a good investment with quick
money back.
which must be analyzed, modeled and simulated,
are: wind source; blades pitch and yaw movement;
wind turbine and gearbox with brake; AC
generator and controller, as shown in fig.1. All
these elements are positioned inside a nacelle
placed on a high tower.
The wind turbine can be considered as a system
with the block diagram from fig.2.

Fig.2. Wind turbine block diagram

The wind model has as output an uncontrollable

wind speed v, which moves the blades of the
turbine rotor. This movement produces a
mechanical power Pm. The output of the turbine is
the mechanical torque MT. In order to have
maximum efficiency in terms of wind stream
capture, the nacelle can have a yaw movement and
the blades a pitch movement with the angle θ.
The low rotation speed of the turbine is
amplified by a gearbox to a speed high enough to
rotate the shaft of an AC generator. Normally the
useful wind speed range is between 4 m/s and 20
m/s. If the wind speed is out of this range then the
turbine is stopped by a brake.
Fig.1. Pico-hydro power plant diagram

ISSN: 1790-2769 97 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7

 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)
Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008

The generator uses the torque MT to produce an −

(v − vm ) 2
1
electrical power P and a ωG speed. f (v ) = ⋅e 2⋅σ 2 (2)
The turbine controller maintains the nacelle in σ⋅ 2⋅π
such a position so it will capture the maximum where σ is the root mean square.
wind power by controlling the pitch and yaw In case of small power wind turbine the yaw
angles. On the other hand, there must be controlled movement is made by the wind. In this case, there
the slip s in order to maintain the output voltage can be determined the yaw movement differential
constant. equation:
d 2α dα
J ⋅ 2 + ka ⋅ = Fv (3)
dt dt
2 Problem Formulation where α is the yaw rotation angle; J is the nacelle
In this section we will model and simulate all the inertia; ka is the air friction constant and Fv is the
components of the wind turbine. First we will wind force, as follows:
model the fluid mechanics part, consisting of wind Fv = F0 ⋅ cos α; F0 = kv ⋅ v 2 ; kv = const (4)
model and turbine. Then, we will model the
electrical part, consisting of AC generator. Results the transfer function:
α( s) kc
Ga ( s ) = = (5)
Fv ( s ) s ⋅ (1 + T1 ⋅ s )
2.1 Fluid mechanics part model 1 J
First, we will write the mathematical model for the kc = ; T1 = (6)
ka ka
wind.
We will consider that wind speed has two In fig.3 are presented the model and simulation
components: the average speed vm and the results for the yaw movement reported at the
fluctuation speed vf. Gauss-Laplace distribution of the wind speed
fluctuation.
v = vm + v f (1)
There are used the following data: vm=10 m/s;
The speed v can be appreciated by the Gauss – σ=4 m/s; kc=0.6; T1=0.2 s; kv=1.
Laplace probability density f(v) as follows:

Fig.3. Yaw movement: a) Model; b) Detail; c) Simulation results

Second, we will write the model for the turbine. where ρ is the air density; c p = f (θ, λ) is the
The kinetic energy produced by the wind linear
v
speed v rotates the turbine with the speed ωT. The efficiency coefficient and λ = is the speed
turbine’s blades draw a disk of the radius R ω⋅ R
producing at rotor shaft the mechanical power Pm. factor.
1 For a known wind turbine, c p can be
Pm = ⋅ ρ ⋅ π ⋅ R 2 ⋅ c p (θ, λ ) ⋅ v 3 (7)
2 determined by measurement but in some restrictive
conditions can be approximated by exponential
relations as follows:

ISSN: 1790-2769 98 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7

 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)
Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008

λ0 13
⎛ b ⎞ − ⎛ 120 ⎞ −
c p = a ⋅ ⎜⎜ − c ⋅ θ − d ⎟⎟ ⋅ e λ T (8) c p (θ, λ ) = 0.25 ⋅ ⎜⎜ − 0.6 ⋅ θ − 5 ⎟⎟ ⋅ e λ T
⎝ λT ⎠ ⎝ λT ⎠
1 1 h 1 1 0.035
= − (9) = − ; (10)
λT λ−1 + g ⋅ θ (l ⋅ θ)3 + 1 λT λ−1 + 0.12 ⋅ θ (1.5 ⋅ θ)3 + 1
In these relations, the coefficients a, b, c, d, λ0, λ ∈ [0, 0.5] ; θ ∈ [0, 25]
o

g, h and l must be determined using the The cp(θ,λ) represents a complicated 3D

constructive data of the turbine. surface, but if λ, θ or Pm are constant results the
For a turbine having Pm=50 kW, the relation can very useful curves family as shown in fig.4.
be:

Fig.4. Efficiency coefficient: a) cp = f(θ,λ); b) θ = f(λ); c) cp = f(θ); d) cp = f(λ)

Considering JT, MT, ωT the inertia, torque and MT

speed of the turbine rotor; JG, M, ωG the inertia, M = (13)
i
torque, speed of generator rotor and the gear box
ρ ⋅ π ⋅ R 2 ⋅ c p (θ, λ) ⋅ v 3
transmission report i, we can write the MT = (14)
mathematical model of the turbine: 2 ⋅ ωT
dω In fig.5 are presented the model and simulation
J ⋅ G = M − MG (11)
dt results for the turbine.
J
J = J G + 2T (12)
i

ISSN: 1790-2769 99 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7

 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)
Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008

Fig.5. Turbine: a) Model; b) Detail; c) Simulation results

2.2 Electrical part model π ⋅ nN

ωN = (19)
The electrical part consists of the generator, having 30
as inputs the torque MT and controlled slip s and as The machine must work in generator regime,
outputs the generated power P and the speed ωG. that means in the point F having the coordinates (-
A practical mode to write the generator model sk, -MF). In order to achieve the model we consider
is to consider a steady state regime as double fed the following generator data: PN = 50 kW ,
induction machine. In this case it is possible to
n0 = 500 rot / min , s N = 0.040 , λ N = 2.5 ,
modify the speed by controlling the sleep s.
If Mk and sk are the critical point coordinates, nN = 480 rot / min , i = 17 . We obtain: sk = 0.13 ,
there can be written the following equations: ω0 = 52.35 rad / s , ω N = 50.26 rad / s ,
2 ⋅ M k ⋅ sk ⋅ s M N = 995 N ⋅ m , M k = 2468 N ⋅ m ,
M= 2
(15)
s 2 + sk ωk = 54.444 rad / s , ωT = 4.26 rad / s . In order to
2
sk = s N ⋅ (1 + λ N − 1) (16) generate energy, the speed must be changed as
folows: ω ∈ [52.35, 52.56]rad / s . In fig.6 are
M k = λN ⋅ M N (17)
presented the model of the generator and the
P simulation results.
MN = N (18)
ωN

Fig.6. Generator: a) Detail; b) Model and results

ISSN: 1790-2769 100 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7

 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)
Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008

3 Problem Solution θ( s ) kp
G p (s) = = (20)
In this section we will present the modeling and x p (s) 1 + Tp ⋅ s
simulation of the complete wind turbine system,
where kp is the steady state transfer factor
consisting of the fluid mechanics and the electrical
(kp=1.75) and Tp is the time constant of the
parts analyzed above, together with the dedicated
hydraulic servo drive.
controller that will be developed in this section.
The slip controller modifies the generator slip
This controller controls the pitch angle and the
by injecting in the rotor the energy Ps in order to
generator slip, based on the inputs wind and
maintain the steady state nominal point F. There
generator speeds.
are used the following equations:
P
MT = m (21)
3.1 Controller Design ωT
First, we will design the controller that has two MT
λm = (22)
inputs and two outputs. The inputs are the wind MN
speed v and the generator speed ωG. The outputs
2
are the pitch angle θ and the generator slip s. sm = − sk ⋅ (λ m − λ m − 1) (23)
The controller mathematical model consists of Ps = ( sF − sm ) ⋅ Pm ⋅ ηG (24)
two parts. First part controls the pitch angle and the
where MN, sF, ηG are known.
second the slip. The pitch angle controller has the
In fig.7 are presented the controller model and
transfer function of a first order element, as
simulation results.
follows:

Fig.7. Controller: a) Model; b) Detail; c) Simulation results

3.2 Wind Turbine System with Controller

The wind turbine complete model was obtained
connecting all the elements presented above and
the controller. In fig.8 are shown the simulation
model and results for this system. There were used
the following data: R = 10 m; vmin = 3.99 m/s; vmax
= 16.1 m/s; ωmin = 52.35 rad/s; ωmax = 54.444 rad/s;
ηG = 0.75. The wind speed v has a probabilistic
variation around 10 m/s by ± 5 m/s.
Fig.8. Wind turbine model and simulation results

ISSN: 1790-2769 101 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7

 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS and CONTROL (CONTROL'08)
Corfu, Greece, October 26-28, 2008
4 Conclusion
In the last decay, due to the great development of
electromechanical and control technologies, there
was reconsidered an old energy production
method, that is the wind mills.
The wind together with water and solar
radiation represent the three main natural
renewable, clean energy resources, if there are
specific conditions for them. If the water can be
energy productive only if there is level differences
relief and the solar radiation is efficient only
during day light, the wind can be used in any kind
of area during a full day. On the other hand the
wind energy represents the most concentrated
electric power production per m2 and with
acceptable investments. Now the technology is
quite mature and continues to develop due to new
research. The modeling and simulation represent
one of the best solutions to do this.
In this paper, first we have considered a wind
turbine system, consisting of four elements: wind
model, wind turbine, AC generator and controller.
The paper presents a systemic approach on the
wind turbine system, starting with the block
diagram with its input and output.
There are modeled and simulated the dynamics
of fluidic part (wind model and turbine) and the
electric part (AC generator). Then, there is
designed, modeled and simulated the controller. In
the end there is implemented the model and are
obtained the simulation results for the system.
The wind turbine system mathematical model
was validated through simulation results and based
on it was designed the appropriate controller.
The results of this paper prove the correctness
of the model and can be used in practical
applications.
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102 ISBN: 978-960-474-014-7