AC 2010-498: EMULATION OF A WIND TURBINE SYSTEM

Ruben Otero, Student at University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez Apurva Somani, University of Minnesota Krushna Mohapatra, University of Minnesota Ned Mohan, University of Minnesota

American Society for Engineering Education, 2010

Emulation of a Wind Turbine System

Abstract Recently there has been an increasing interest in wind power generation systems. Among renewable sources of energy (excluding hydro power), wind energy offers the lowest cost. It is therefore imperative that basics of wind power generation be taught in the undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum. In this paper, an experiment that emulates wind turbine systems has been developed for this purpose. It is known that the power that can be drawn from the wind in a wind turbine depends on the wind speed and the speed at which the shaft of the turbine is rotated. The objective of this project was to emulate the behavior of such a system using two DC machines. One of the DC machines was operated under torque control. The torque reference for this machine was generated using the Power vs. Shaft speed curves for wind turbines. This DC machine emulated the wind turbine and shaft. The second DC machine was operated under speed control and this machine emulated the electrical generator. Simulations were performed to design such a system. The system was implemented in real-time using Simulink and dSPACE control platform. Two 200W DC machines rated at 40VDC and 4000 rpm were used. The DC machines were controlled using a pulse width modulated (PWM) power converter. This project was part of an undergraduate research supported by NSF and the University of Minnesota Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.

I.

Introduction

The objective is to develop a system that emulates a wind turbine. Previous efforts in this direction have employed separately excited DC machines1,2 with power ratings in the multiple horsepower range. The intended application of the system described in this paper is for undergraduate laboratory courses. Thus, a system that works at lower voltages is desired. Existing laboratory equipment such as DC motors and generators are to be used to describe the system. Since this experiment was done using two 200W DC machines3 rated at 42VDC and 3600 rpm it is more appropriate for educational purposes. The kinetic energy from the wind is transferred as rotational mechanical energy to the wind turbine system. An optional gearbox can be placed depending on the generator specifications to increase the shaft speed (hence decreasing the torque). This mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy using a generator. A power electronic interface may be needed to interface the generator with the supply grid and to provide a control method for the system.

The mechanical power in the wind depends on a few factors and is given by4,5: 1 2 where is the air density (1.225 kg/m3 at 150 C and 1 atm.), A is cross-sectional area of the blades and Vw is the wind speed. Betzs Law states that only a fraction of this power can be captured by the wind turbine [Ref.5]. This fraction of the power in the wind that can be captured by the wind turbine is called the Power Coefficient (Cp) and is defined as:

The maximum theoretical Cp value is .593 or 59.3% Assuming that there is no pitch angle control for low variable wind speed, equation (3) describes the Power Coefficient (Cp) in terms of the Wind Speed and Shaft Speed of the wind: 1 2 5.6
.

where Vw is the Wind Speed in mph and m is the Shaft Speed in rad/sec. Equations (1-3) are used to calculate the shaft power (Pshaft) curves for various wind speeds. The results are shown in Fig. 1
120 100 80

Power transfer to the shaft vs. Shaft speed

20 m/s 15 m/s 10 m/s 5 m/s

Pshaft (W)

60

40

20 0 0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Shaft Speed (rpm)

Fig. 1: Power vs. Shaft Speed curves

Note: The power shown in Fig.1 was scaled by a factor of 1/15 and a gear ratio of 50 was used for the shaft speed. This was done to match the equipment rating used in the experiments. The diameter of the blades was chosen to be 1m for simplicity.

II.

Modeling and Emulation of Wind Power Generation System

The modeling and emulation of this wind power generation system are done by controlling the torque of one DC machines and the speed of another DC machine. The wind turbine is emulated using a model that generates torque as output depending on wind speed and shaft speed (which are inputs to the system) as shown in Fig.2. This is implemented using a DC motor which is operated under Torque-control (Current-control) with torque reference derived from the wind turbine system Model (Fig.2). The wind turbine system model is either based on an equation or a look up table. Wind Turbine Model

Fig. 2: Wind Turbine System Model

The generator controls the shaft speed in modern wind turbines. The generator is usually a threephase induction motor or a permanent magnet ac motor. However, in this paper the generator is emulated using a DC motor. This DC motor (DC-M1) is operated under speed-control as shown in Fig.3. The shaft speed of this DC motor (DC-M1) along with the wind speed set the torque reference for the other DC motor (DC-M2) as shown in Fig.2. Torque Control Speed Control

Wind Turbine DC-M2

Generator DC-M1

Fig. 3: Emulation of wind turbine and generator using two DC motors

The power in the shaft can be represented by the torque generated in the shaft depending on the shaft speed. The torque vs. shaft speed curves for different wind speeds are shown in Fig.4.

0.16 0.14 0.12

Torque vs Shaft Speed

20 mph 15 mph 10 mph 5 mph

Shaft Torque (N.m)

0.10 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Shaft Speed (rpm)

Fig. 4: Torque vs. Shaft Speed curve

Torque control of the DC motor is done by controlling the machine current. The torque reference is set using equations (1-4). The PI controller used for the torque control6 is shown in Fig.5.

IL_ref

Kp_i Integrator 1

VL

IL

Ki_i

Fig. 5: PI current controller

The speed control of the DC generator is similar to the torque control because it uses a PI current controller. The reference input to the current PI controller is the output of a speed PI controller that has a reference shaft speed as input. The controller used for speed control of the DC generator is shown in Fig.6.

m_ref m

PI Speed Controller

Ia_ref PI Current Controller

V0

Ia
Fig. 6: Speed controller

III.

Hardware Setup and Results

The experiment setup consisted of the following equipment: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Two permanent magnet DC machines rated at 200W, 3600rpm and 40V Power Electronics converter board7 40V DC power supply dSPACE DS1104 board Computer with MATLAB/Simulink for real-time interface

A photograph of the hardware setup is shown in Fig.7.

Fig. 7: Hardware setup

The model of the turbine and the generator are implemented in Simulink. This model is executed he m 8 in real time by dSPACE. The PW signals for the power converter are generate by dSPACE. WM ated A block diagram of the motor con control system is shown in Fig.8. The Simulink model is shown in mo Fig. 9.

DC Power Source

Power Processing U (PPU) Unit

Adjustable Form

Motor

Control In Input Input Command (Speed) Speed Feedback

Controller

Senso sor

Fig. 8: Block diagram of motor co control system

Fig. 9: Simulink model of the syste ystem

The model is executed in dSPAC and results are obtained. Results are taken for various wind CE speed inputs, namely 5, 10 and 15 mph. The rotor speed is varied and the shaft torque is t to measured. The results are shown in Fig. 10. n

Fig. 10: Experimental results for torque-speed curves

IV.

Conclusion

A wind turbine model has been developed using permanent magnet DC machines. Simulations are performed to design the system and hardware verification is done. This model can be utilized in an undergraduate electric drives laboratory to introduce wind power generation. Further work may include incorporating an induction machine to emulate the generator.

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