Wind turbine nacelle movement estimation using FEM model

The compensation of wind speed considering the effect of nacelle movement is required for the performance and control analysis of wind turbine. It is not easy to find some suitable sensors for measuring nacelle movement velocity. A Kalman filter estimating the nacelle movement is introduced. Several mathematical models describing the nacelle-tower dynamics are developed, and combined with the estimator. The performance of estimator based on the Euler-Bernoulli beam model is not satisfactory. However, estimation result using a simple lumped parameter model for the nacelle-tower dynamics is much better than the above, even though there are 10% errors. Itpsilas anticipated that the estimator using FEM model will provide better performance characteristics. This paper introduces some initial experimental and analysis results using a small scale laboratory model for a wind turbine nacelle and tower.