DESIGN, MODELING, SIMULATION AND INVESTIGATION OF THE DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF A HYDROSTATIC POWER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM FOR HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Mechanical engineering department, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Future University, Cairo, Egypt

3 Mechanical Engineering Department, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

10.21608/auej.2023.250831.1484

Abstract

The basic elements of a traditional wind turbine are installed at the top of the turbine tower. The masses of these elements, together with the forces exerted by wind streams over the turbine blades, represent a heavy load on the turbine tower and require a high-rigidity tower. One of the major elements of a traditional wind turbine is a gear box. The rigid gearbox is squeezed due to turbine rotor driving torque and generator braking torque. The cyclic squeezing process leads to high failure rates for gear boxes, increased maintenance costs, and consequently, lower system reliability. Another issue with conventional wind turbines is that the wind speed is variable, resulting in fluctuating generator rotational speeds. This fluctuation requires a frequency converter to synchronize the generator speed with the electrical grid requirements. This research presents a proposed design of the hydraulic power system for wind turbines to eliminate the above-mentioned problems. The suggested system can seamlessly replace the classical transmission in traditional wind turbines without lowering the turbine performance or other satisfaction criteria. This study introduces a mathematical model for the proposed system components, and a dynamic model is constructed using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The turbine performance is investigated in different conditions, considering factors such as wind speed variation, generator load fluctuation, transmission line length, and accumulator size. The results indicate that the steady-state generator angular speed is almost constant regardless of load or wind speed variations. Moreover, the length of the high-pressure transmission line and the accumulator size significantly influence system dynamics.
 
Special Issue of AEIC 2024 (Mechanical & Chemical and Material Engineering  Session)

Keywords

Main Subjects