Ge Infrastructure Technology, LLC

Logan Sproull Snow

Charles Erklin Seeley

Eladio Clemente Delgado

A system and method are provided for reducing vibrations and loads in one or more rotor blades on a rotor hub of a wind turbine when the rotor hub is in a locked or idling condition. An electronically tunable spring mass damper is attached to a fixed location on one or more of the rotor blades. The spring mass damper is maintained on the rotor blades during the locked or idling condition of the rotor hub. The method includes sensing movement of the mass component resulting from the vibrations induced in the blade. Based on the sensed movement of the mass component, the spring mass damper is automatically tuned to the amplitude of the vibrations by operating the electric machine as a generator in a virtual damper mode and/or tuned to the frequency of the vibrations by operating the electrical machine as a motor-generator in a virtual spring mode.

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Rotterdam, NY, United States of America

Logan Sproull Snow