Vibration control of wind turbine tower-nacelle model with magnetorheological tuned vibration absorber

Wind turbine tower dynamic load is related to the fatigue and reliability of the structure. This paper deals with the problem of tower vibration control using specially designed and built numerical and laboratory model. The regarded wind turbine tower-nacelle model consists of vertically arranged stiff rod (representing the tower), and a stiff body fixed at its top representing nacelle assembly that is equipped with horizontally aligned tuned vibration absorber (TVA) with magnetorheological (MR) damper. To model tower-nacelle dynamics, Comsol Multiphysics finite element method environment was used. For time and frequency domain numerical analyses (including first and second bending modes of vibration) of system with TVA and MR damper models, MATLAB/Simulink environment was used with Comsol Multiphysics tower-nacelle model embedded. Force excitation sources applied horizontally to the nacelle, and to the tower itself were both considered. The MR damper real-time control algorithms, including ground hook control and its modification, sliding mode control, linear and nonlinear (cubic and square root) damping, and adaptive solutions are compared to the open-loop case with various constant MR damper input current values and system without MRTVA (i.e. MRTVA in ‘locked’ state). Comprehensive numerical analyses results are presented along with Vensys 82 full-scale tower-nacelle model validation. Finally, preliminary results of laboratory tests are included.