Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Kristian Robert Dixon

Per Egedal

Thomas Esbensen

Volkmar Sterzing

Siegmund Düll

Edward Anthony Mayda

An adjustable lift regulating device () on an inboard portion of a wind turbine blade (). The lift regulating device is activated to reduce lift on the inboard portion of the blade by causing flow separation () on the suction side () of the blade. To compensate for the lost lift, the blade pitch is increased to a running pitch that facilitates stalling on the outer portion of the blade in gusts. This provides passive reduction of fatigue and extreme loads from gusts while allowing full power production under non-gust conditions.

Method and apparatus for reduction of fatigue and gust loads on wind turbine blades

A wind turbine rotor blade is equipped with an air chamber and equipped via the air chamber to route a modulation beam out of the rotor blade such that the air current along the rotor blade is changed. Thereby the laminar current is changed into a turbulent current on the one hand and its detachment and on the other hand its recreation is achieved in order to produce the laminar current. The control may occur via electrostatic actuators via a learnable control strategy based on neural forecasts, which take the complexity of the non-linear system into account and allow for the plurality of influencing factors. The stress on the rotor blades may be reduced, resulting in longer service life and reduced maintenance costs, a higher level of efficiency or quieter operation.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Kristian Robert Dixon