General Electric Company

Megan Michela Wilson

Akshay Krishnamurty Ambekar

Scott Gabell Riddell

Michael Christopher Booth

Stefan Kern

Siddhanth Chandrashekar

James Robert Tobin

Peter Alan Gregg

Scott Charles Evans

Stefan Herr

Kevin Wayne Kinzie

Colin Craig McCulloch

Zhanpan Zhang

Subhankar Ghosh

Dongjai Lee

Vineel Chandrakanth Gujjar

Sara Simonne Delport

William Arthur Flodder

Manisha Srivastava

Benoit Philippe Armand Petitjean

Mark Nicolaas Jonkhof

Colin Craig Mcculloch

Rotor blade assemblies for wind turbines are provided. A rotor blade assembly includes a rotor blade. In some embodiments, the rotor blade assembly further includes a surface feature configured on an exterior surface of the rotor blade, the surface feature having an exterior mounting surface. At least a portion of the exterior mounting surface has a contour in an uninstalled state that is different from a curvature of the exterior surface of the rotor blade at a mount location of the surface feature on the rotor blade. In other embodiments, the rotor blade assembly further includes a seal member surrounding at least a portion of a perimeter of the surface feature. The seal member contacts and provides a transition between the exterior surface and the surface feature.

Wind turbine rotor blade assembly with surface features

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for validating wind farm performance improvements so as to optimize wind farm performance. In one embodiment, the method includes operating, via a controller, the wind farm in a first operating mode. Another step includes collecting a first set of operating data, via a processor, during the first operating mode. A further step includes operating, via the controller, the wind farm in a second operating mode. The method also includes collecting a second set of operating data, via the processor, during the second operating mode. Next, the method includes normalizing the first and second sets of operating data based on wind speed distributions. As such, another step includes comparing, via the processor, the normalized first and second sets of operating data so as to validate one or more wind farm performance measurements.

Systems and methods for validating wind farm performance improvements

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for generating one or more farm-level power curves for a wind farm that can be used to validate an upgrade provided to the wind farm. The method includes operating the wind farm in a first operational mode. Another step includes collecting turbine-level operational data from one or more of the wind turbines in the wind farm during the first operational mode. The method also includes aggregating the turbine-level operational data into a representative farm-level time-series. Another step includes analyzing the operational data collected during the first second operational mode. Thus, the method also includes generating one or more farm-level power curves for the first operational mode based on the analyzed operational data.

System and method for validating optimization of a wind farm

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for determining wake losses of a wind farm. The wind farm includes a plurality of wind turbines. The method includes operating the wind farm in a first operational mode. Another step includes collecting turbine-level data from at least one upstream wind turbines in the wind farm during the first operational mode. The method also includes estimating a freestream farm-level power output for the wind farm during first operational mode based, at least in part, on the collected turbine-level data. A further step includes measuring an actual farm-level power output for the wind farm for the first operational mode. Thus, the method also includes determining the wake losses of the wind farm for the first operational mode as a function of the measured actual farm-level power output and the estimated freestream farm-level power output.

System and method for determining wind farm wake loss

The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for assessing farm-level performance of a wind farm. The method includes operating the wind farm in a first operational mode and identifying one or more pairs of wind turbines having wake interaction. The method also includes generating a pairwise dataset for the wind turbines pairs. Further, the method includes generating a first wake model based on the pairwise dataset and predicting a first farm-level performance parameter based on the first wake model. The method also includes operating the wind farm in a second operational mode and collecting operational data during the second operational mode. Moreover, the method includes predicting a first farm-level performance parameter for the second operational mode using the first wake model and the operational data from the second operational mode. The method further includes determining a second farm-level performance parameter during the second operational mode. Thus, the method includes determining a difference in the farm-level performance of the wind farm as a function of the first and second farm-level performance parameters.

System and method for assessing farm-level performance of a wind farm

A system and method for simultaneously coordinating a wake control system and a noise control system of a wind farm having a plurality of wind turbines is disclosed. The method includes determining, via a farm controller, one or more wake control set points for the wake control system. Further, the method includes determining, via the farm controller, one or more noise control set points for the noise control system. The method also includes selecting, via the farm controller, between the wake control set points and the noise control set points for each of the plurality of wind turbines. Thus, the method also includes sending, via the farm controller, the selected control set points to local controllers of the plurality of wind turbines and operating the wind farm based on the selected control set points.

System and method for coordinating wake and noise control systems of a wind farm

A computer-implemented method for recalibrating nacelle-positions of a plurality of wind turbines in a wind park is implemented by a nacelle calibration computing device including a processor and a memory device coupled to the processor. The method includes identifying at least two associated wind turbines included within the wind park wherein each associated wind turbine includes location information, determining a plurality of predicted wake features for the associated wind turbines based at least partially on the location information of each associated wind turbine, retrieving a plurality of historical performance data related to the associated wind turbines, determining a plurality of current wake features based on the plurality of historical performance data, identifying a variance between the predicted wake features and the current wake features, and determining a recalibration factor for at least one of the associated wind turbines based on the identified variance.

Systems and methods for wind turbine nacelle-position recalibration and wind direction estimation

A rigid template for aligning surface features on a rotor blade is disclosed. The rigid template is shaped to correspond to the surface of the rotor blade. Further, the rigid template includes a base end and a tail end opposite the base end. The base end is configured to connect to an alignment structure, the alignment structure being fixed relative to the rotor blade. The tail end includes at least one marker configured to locate at least one surface feature on the surface of the rotor blade.

Template for aligning surface features on a rotor blade

A wind turbine rotor blade includes a root portion and an airfoil portion extending from the root portion and defined by a leading edge and a trailing edge. The airfoil portion further includes a main foil section and a trailing edge section that is pivotally connected to the main foil section along a span-wise extending pivot zone. The trailing edge section is biased to a neutral position wherein the trailing edge section is pivoted chord-wise to a low wind speed position relative to the main foil section.

Wind turbine rotor blade with passively modified trailing edge component

A wind turbine rotor blade includes a root portion and an airfoil portion extending from the root portion and defined by a leading edge and a trailing edge. The airfoil portion further includes a main foil section and a trailing edge section that is pivotally connected to the main foil section along a span-wise extending hinge line. A passive torsion element is coupled between the main foil section and the trailing edge section. The torsion element is biased to a neutral position wherein the trailing edge section is pivoted chord-wise to a low wind speed position relative to the main foil section. The trailing edge section is self-actuating from the low wind speed position to an increased wind speed position relative to the main foil section as a function of the biasing force of the torsion element and wind speed over the airfoil section.

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Greenville, SC, United States of America

Megan Michela Wilson