Dielectric barrier Discharge (DBD) based plasma activation in Horizontal Axis Wind turbine using Model predictive control logic for improved performance

Abstract

The active flow control of rotor blades decides the efficiency of the wind turbine. This active flow control of wind turbine also has a major role in the fatigue loading of turbine components. The Plasma actuator is one such active flow control technique which precisely achieves the power efficiency of the wind turbine in a highly stochastic wind field. This plasma actuator involves virtual mechanical moving parts and application of high voltage at various span of the blade. But the serious detriment of this plasma actuator is that the ON-OFF based plasma actuation intrudes fatigue loading of the turbine components, especially on the blades. This is due to the unspecific change in the aerodynamic lift while activating plasma actuator. This fatigue load has a serious effect on the life-time of the structural components. In order to overcome this difficulty in plasma actuators, a novel methodology involving the azimuthal angle based predictive plasma level switching is proposed in this work. The Multiple-model predictive algorithm is used for controlling the plasma level at various azimuthal angles of the blade. The NREL FAST 5MW baseline wind turbine is used for analysis. The proposed methodology is validated using Fatigue life analysis by MLife software of NREL.