Structural Control of a Wind Turbine Accounting for Second Order Effects

The negative impact of the use of fossil fuels on the environment has lead to a boom in the production of wind turbines. The progressively increasing turbines' height, decided to take ad-vantage of the smoother winds at higher altitude, has led to an increased demand to control tower forces. The proposed work is focused on the application of a semi-active (SA) control system to limit bending moment demand at the base of a wind turbine by relaxing the base restraint of the turbine's tower, without increasing the top displacement. The proposed SA control system reproduces a variable restraint at the base that changes in real time its mechanical properties according to the instantaneous response of the turbine's tower. This smart restraint is made of a central smooth hinge, elastic springs and SA magnetorheological dampers driven by a properly designed control algorithm. A commercial 105 m tall wind turbine has been considered as a case study. Several numerical simulations have been performed with reference to two extreme loads, different one each other for intensity, duration, frequency content, so as to understand if a unique optimal configuration of the controller can be defined for both of them. The proposed study is also focused on understanding whether and how to reduce the residual top displacement due to the possible incremental base rotation that may happen during a wind load history, especially when it is long lasting.