A new control technique to reduce dynamic effect of unbalanced masses in wind

turbine systems
Abstract
Residual unbalance in wind turbine system may occur due to manufacturing, installation defects or even resulted because of
extreme transient torsional events such as hard stop, grid fault and extreme wind conditions etc. These unbalance masses can
result in dynamic mismatch between individual components when operated at critical speed in variable speed wind turbine system
and may lead to failure of sensitive components. Hence, exploration of new control solution for dynamic torque reduction under
mechanical unbalance will be an asset to the industry. In this paper, analysis of unbalanced mass for wind turbine drivetrain
system is considered. The wind turbine system subjected to mechanical unbalance under critical speed results in torsional
stresses between individual components. A new speed difference algorithm is proposed based on generator and planetary gear
speed differences. The proposed solution is compared against existing vibration reduction methods for reducing the effect of
unbalance. The proposed algorithm is able to reduce shaft over torque to 816 Nm while the existing methods have shown an
inferior performance. Hence with the new proposed solution torsional stresses between individual components are reduced under
critical speed in wind turbine system.
Critical speed,drivetrain systems, electromechanical interaction, extreme wind condition, mechanical drive train, nat-
ural frequency, unbalanced masses.

Introduction
Variable speed operation is gaining popularity in the wind turbine systems because of its better energy managing capabilities [1].
However, such operation comes with the risk of operation at the critical speed (speed corresponding to the first natural frequency
of the drivetrain system). Optimal operation of the wind turbine system is directly linked to right rotor adjustment and balance [2].
The drivetrain system can have small amount of residual unbalance induced while manufacturing, installation, or induced because
of extreme transient torsional events [2]. These unbalances along with the operation at critical speed causes a centrifugal force
at the first natural frequency which gives the rotor a wobbling movement characteristic of vibration of rotating structures [3] and
can lead to failures of sensitive components. The unbalances are corrected by costlier mechanical implementations in actual wind
turbine drivetrain system [4]. Techniques, under names of “stress damping controller” (SDC) [5, 6] and “virtual inertia damping
controller” (VIDC) [7–9] have been proposed to reduce stress and to increase the life expectancy in wind turbine system. But thier
application for unbalanced mass effect reduction was not explored. Hence, there is an opportunity to explore the performance
of existing schemes as well as proposal new cost effective method, using electrical control system. In this paper, a new speed
difference control solution is proposed based on individual component speed differences to reduce the unbalance mass effects.
The proposed solution is compared with existing stress damping controller(SDC) and virtul inedamping controller (VIDC). It is
shown that the proposed control is able to reduce the shaft over torque to 816 Nm while SDC and VIDC reduces shaft over torque
to 2130 Nm ,2120 Nm respectively. The proposed solution is able to reduce shaft over torque while the existing control methods
have shown inferior performance. With the new proposed solution torsional stresses between individual components are reduced
under critical speed in wind turbine system.

1 System modelling
In this paper, a 2.5 MW wind turbine system is considered with a wind turbine speed of 18 rpm and gear ratio of 1/34 which
drives a PMSG machine of 690 V, 60 Hz and 600 rpm [10]. The mechanical components are modelled in SIMPACK, electrical
system, control and wind turbine characteristics are modelled in MATLAB Simulink.

Figure 1: Wind turbine system

1.1 Mechanical system modelling
A wind turbine system consists of turbine blades, rotor, 2 stage planetary gear box and generator. Fig. 1 represents the basic
component diagram of a wind turbine system. Wind turbine system can be simplified to a lumped parameter model having
similar dynamics to reduce the computational burden and simulation time [11]. In literatures wind turbine systems have been
modelled as an eight mass seven stiffness (8M-7S) system with inertia and stiffness transferred to generator side, shown in fig. 2
with J1 representing wind turbine rotor inertia and J8 representing generator rotor inertia [10]. To represent residual mechanical
unbalance the inertia axis of Inertia-7 (J7 ) is moved by an amount 5 mm from rotational axis (Possible reason coupling wear and
impropoer installation ) [12]. Fig. 3 represents the SIMPACK model of 8M-7S system which includes the mechanical unbalance
in 3 dimensional space.

Figure 2: 8-Mass 7-Stiffness system

Figure 3: Simpack model of wind turbine system

Table 1: Pole and natural frequency of the mechanical system

Pole Damping ratio Natural frequency(Hz) Time constant(s)

-0.000000331 1 - 3018297
-0.3354± 41.8894i 0.0082 6.667 2.893
-0.34273 ± 140.45i 0.002441 22.345 2.9177

To identify the critical speed and torsional interaction in the operation of the wind turbine, the mechanical natural frequency
and damping ratios was determined. The Table 1 shows 3 lowermost natural frequency and damping ratio of the wind turbine
system.
1.2 Theoretical analysis of proposed slgorithm
A wind turbine can be represented as a two inertia system to represent the first natural frequency [5]
   −1    1 
ω 0 0 ωm 0
d  m   Jm Jm
 
1 −1 Tm
ωl = 0 0 Jl
  ωl  +  0
Jl
 (1)
dt Tl
Tsh Ksh −Ksh 0 Tsh 0 0
It is assumed as there is no material damping. The natural frequency of oscillation is:
r
J + Jm
ωres = Ksh l (2)
Jl Jm

Speed Difference Damping Controller (SDDC)

The SDDC works on the feedback of speed difference between generator and driveline components. The control aim is to reduce
the speed difference between generator and driveline components and also to damp the components at the resonant frequency.
The control block diagram for SDDC is indicated in Fig. 4 .
 Figure 4: Block diagram of SDDC method

In the SDDC method, a compensating torque Tcomp , which is a function of speed difference, is added to Kopt ω 2 , the generator
counter-torque command to balance the wind-turbine torque.

Tm = Kopt ω 2 + Tcomp (3)

The compensating torque is given by

Tcomp = −K(ωm − ωl ) (4)
To prove the effectiveness transfer function analysis is used. From equation (1), the transfer function of generator speed to
generator torque and the transfer function of wind turbine (load) speed to generator torque are given respectively as (5) and (6).

ωm 1 ( S2 + KJsh )
l
= (5)
Tm Jm S ( S2 + Ksh ( JlJ+JJm ))
m l

Ksh
ωl 1 Jl
= (6)
Tm Jm S ( S2 + Ksh ( JlJ+JJm ) )
lm

Taking the difference between (5) and (6)

∆ω ωm ωl 1 S
= − = (7)
Tm Tm Tm Jm ( S + Ksh ( JlJ+JJm ) )
2
m l

Where ∆ω is obtained from the difference between the sensed generator speed and the sensed turbine (load) speed.
Closing the loop of the speed difference feedback, the ratio of ∆ω with respect to the regulator speed error is:

∆ω G(s) 1 SK
= = (8)
∆ω re f 1 + G(s)H(s) Jm ( S2 + Ksh ( JlJ+JJm ) + KS
J
)
l m m

KS
The damping coefficient ζ ωres comes from the term Jm in (8) which is introduced by the frequency difference in (7).
1.3 Electrical system modelling along with the proposed control

Figure 5: Electrical system along with the proposed control

The generator used is a round rotor Permanent Magnet Machine (PMSG) of 2.5MWrating. PMSG is connected to a 2 level
voltage source converter with a dc bus voltage of 1150 V and capacitance of 0.1 F. The values are selected from [1] as a ballpark
guide. The switching frequency is 3000 Hz. The PMSG machine is vector controlled. The speed reference is obtained from
the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The outer speed controller has a bandwidth of 1 Hz and inner current
controller bandwidth is 300 Hz (current control loop has a bandwidth of 1/10 of the switching frequency). The vector control
block diagram of the PMSG machine is shown in figure 5. The grid side converter is controlled to make a constant dc bus voltage
with Phase Locked Loop (PLL) and inner current control loops.
To reduce the effect of unbalance and torsional stresses induced during unbalance the proposed speed diference control loop
is added in the wind turbine control system as indicated in the red box shown in figure 5. For the proposed control loop to work
effectively an extra speed sensor is required to be installed in the driveline. The extra speed sensor is placed at the Mass-7 which
corresponds to planetary gear inertia in the wind turbine system. The controller gain for the new control loop is kept at K=40000.

2 Test : Critical Speed Operation under Imbalance

×10 4 404
3
Sh-1 Sh-2 Sh-3 Sh-4 Sh-5 Sh-6 Sh-7 J-8 J-7 J-6 J-5 J-4 J-3 J-2 J-1

2.5
402

Speed(RPM)
Torque(Nm)

2
400
1.5
SDDC
SDC VIDC 398 SDC SDDC
1 VIDC

0.5 396
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Time(s) Time(s)

(a) (b)
402
404 J-8 J-7 J-6 J-5 J-4 J-3 J-2 J-1 J-8 J-7 J-6 J-5 J-4 J-3 J-2 J-1

401
Speed(RPM)

Speed(RPM)
402

400
400

398 399
SDC
396 398
12 12.2 12.4 12.6 12.8 13 13.2 13.4 13.6 13.8 14 22 22.2 22.4 22.6 22.8 23 23.2 23.4 23.6 23.8 24
Time(s) Time(s)

(c) (d)
403 402
J-8 J-7 J-6 J-5 J-4 J-3 J-2 J-1
402 J-8 J-7 J-6 J-5 J-4 J-3 J-2 J-1
401
Speed(RPM)

Speed(RPM)

401

400 400

399
399
398 VIDC SDDC
397 398
35 35.2 35.4 35.6 35.8 36 36.2 36.4 36.6 36.8 37 43 43.2 43.4 43.6 43.8 44 44.2 44.4 44.6 44.8 45
Time(s) Time(s)

(e) (f)

Figure 6: Torques and speeds in test of operation under critical speed

a: Shaft torque b: Inertia speeds in the driveline c: Zoomed in view of Inertia speeds at 12 s d: Zoomed in view of Inertia speeds
at 22 s e:Zoomed in view of Inertia speeds at 35 s f: Zoomed in view of Inertia speeds at 43 s.

Test Results:
Figs. 6(a) to (f) present simulations of SDDC control against rival control methods the SDC and VIDC. For time period 5
s < t < 19 s, the wind-turbine system operates without active control. SDC is switched on during 19 s < t < 29 s. VIDC is
switched on during 29 s < t <39 s. SDDC is switched on during 39s < t < 49 s.
The wind-turbine system produces a steady torque of 17,700 Nm. Figs. 6 (a) show the fluctuating component of torque due
to imbalance superposed on the constant 17,700 Nm. The fluctuating frequency is chosen to correspond to the natural frequency
of the dominant torsional mode. Without any control the fluctuating component has an amplitude of 8,320 Nm. With SDC it is
2,320 Nm and with VIDC it is 2,120 Nm and with the proposed SDDC method it is 816 Nm. The best method for reducing shaft
torque amplitude under critical speed operation is SDDC.
Figs. 6 (b) to (f) display the speeds at various points in the driveline represented by the inertias J1 to J8 in Fig. 2. The time
scale of Fig. 6 (b) does not allow distinctions to be made. The zoomed version in Figs 4 (c) show that Inertia-8 (Generator)
is moving in opposite direction to Inertia-1 to Inertia-7 (lumped together) when there is no active control. Fig. 6 (d) shows
that under SDC Inertia-8 (Generator) is about 90 degrees out of phase with the rest of the shaft (Inertia-1 to Inertia-7 clustered
together). Fig. 6 (e) shows that under VIDC Inertia-8 (Generator) is about in phase with the rest of the shaft (Inertia-1 to Inertia-7
clustered together). With VIDC the Inertia-8 and Inertia-7 become in phase but amplitude difference still exists. Under SDDC
as shown in Fig. 6 (f), the phase difference is the same as Fig. 6 (e). Significantly, all the amplitudes of all inertias are about the
same. The twist in the shaft of the drive train is small and this correlates with the low torque of SDDC in Fig. 6 (a).
3 Experimental Verification
An experimental test setup is developed based on induction machine and dc machine shown in Fig. 7. The test setup has a
weakest shaft in the driveline. The natural frequency of the test set up is 30.83 Hz and the critical speed corresponding to the
natural frequency is 1849 rpm. The test set up will be running at 1849 rpm and loaded condition. Final paper will include the
results during critical speed condition with various control algorithm applied to reduce the stress with in the driveline elements.

Figure 7: Multi-mass test set up to verify effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm at critical speed

Conclusion
The mass unbalance in wind turbine system results in torsional stresses among the individual driveline components. A suitable
torsional vibration suppression strategy is developed that improved the reliability in wind turbine system. The proposed solution
is verified on a 2.5 MW mass unbalanced wind turbine system and found effective in reducing the torsional stress compared with
the existing methods.

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