H∞ position transfer and regulation for floating offshore wind turbines

This paper proposes H-infinity controller design for platform position transfer and regulation of floating offshore wind turbines. The platform movability of floating wind turbines can be utilized in mitigating the wake effect in the wind farm, thereby maximizing the wind farm's total power capture and efficiency. The controller is designed so that aerodynamic force is adjusted to meet the three objectives simultaneously, that is, 1) to generate the desired electrical power level, 2) to achieve the desired platform position, and 3) to suppress the platform oscillation. To acquire sufficient aerodynamic force to move the heavy platform, the pitch-to-stall blade pitching strategy is taken instead of the commonly-used pitch-to-feather strategy. The desired power level is attained by the standard constant-power strategy for the generator torque, while H-infinity state-feedback control of blade pitch and nacelle yaw angles is adopted for the position regulation and platform oscillation suppression. Weighting constants for the H-infinity controller design are adjusted to take the trade-off between the position regulation accuracy and the platform motion reduction. To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed controller, a virtual 5-MW semi-submersible wind turbine is considered. Simulation results show that the designed H-infinity controller successfully accomplishes the platform position transfer and regulation as well as the platform oscillation reduction against wind and wave disturbances, and that it outperforms a previously-proposed linear quadratic controller with an integrator.