Download MSc dissertation - School of Computing

Abstract
Wind turbine design and development is currently a very dynamic industry, and
designers need appropriate tools and resources to experiment with innovations and
to evaluate the effect of modifications. However, access to installed turbines in situ
for testing and monitoring is typically difficult. Hardware-in-the-loop simulation offers
a solution to this problem. A wind turbine emulator uses a real or scaled-down drive
train but typically replaces the prime mover with an electric drive.
Based on a review of previous work on wind turbine emulators, this project proposes
a control system designed to reproduce a variable wind profile taking into account
torque oscillations due to wind shear and tower shadow.
Initial software development is undertaken to provide a basic human machine
interface to emulator hardware. The software does not attempt to implement the
turbine model at this stage.
Results from evaluation and software testing identify limitations of the current
configuration. A series of follow-on projects is outlined.
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