An Integrated Control and Design Framework for Optimizing Energy Capture and Component Life for a Wind Turbine Variable Ratio Gearbox

Abstract

Small wind turbines are a promising technology that can provide renewable power to rural and remote communities. In order to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of small wind technology, it is necessary to maximize the wind energy capture and to prolong the turbine system life. Accordingly, this paper presents an integrated development framework that optimizes component design goals, including durability and minimal gearbox mass, with the control objective of producing maximum energy over the turbine system’s 20yr life. This study focuses on the wind turbine gearbox, which plays a critical role in achieving high efficiency and extended system life. A variable ratio gearbox (VRG) previously developed by the authors is used as an example to demonstrate the methodology. In this paper, an algorithm developed for optimizing the VRG gear ratio is integrated with the design selection of commercially available gears, which will be used to construct the VRG gearbox. The proposed multiobjective framework is capable of identifying the optimal gearsets based on a tradeoff between selecting gearsets that maximize wind turbine efficiency and choosing gearsets that best meet the design requirements.