A Co-Simulation Analysis of Hydraulic Pitch Control System in Large Wind Turbine

The use of wind power has been rising up rapidly due to its power potential and the improvement of technology. In order to extend the max capacity of power output, the size of wind turbine should grow simultaneously. Therefore, a cost effectiveness of wind power plant is needed to improve the performance. This paper aims at designing a novel hydraulic pitch actuator to implement pitch control effectively even if an impulsive wind peak appears. By developing a novel hydraulic pump control system, the creative design of hydraulic pump control system comprising a fixed displacement pump driven by a servo motor, two unsymmetrical hydraulic cylinders, and hydraulic circuits, could have an excellent response in operation. Furthermore, a feedback linearization controller was designed to compensate for the nonlinearity of hydraulic system and overcome the impulsive loadings from wind peaks. The turbine model was built through FAST released by NREL and the dynamic performance showed the excellent robustness and response with that proposed controller and mechanical design.