Model-free control of the dynamic lift of a wind turbine blade section: experimental results

Abstract

Abstract This work addresses the problem of developing control algorithms for the control of the aerodynamic lift of wind turbine blades using air injection, taking into account disturbances caused by turbulent perturbations. For this, a test bench is used where the lift of a 2D blade section in a wind tunnel can be controlled by a set of micro-jets close to the trailing edge. Through a continuous, local identification of the lift variations a model-free control that does not need any prior knowledge of the system is proposed. It allows the control of the flow of the micro-jets and stabilizes the lift around a tracking reference. The ability of the proposed control algorithm to track the lift reference when subjected to external perturbations, i.e., gusts, is discussed. In particular, this work demonstrates that the lift can be set to particular values using the proposed control strategy, and can be re-stabilized to pre-gust lift conditions. Experimental results illustrate globally the feasibility of such a control.