Development of a robust nonlinear pitch angle controller for a redesigned 5MW wind turbine blade tip

Power in wind turbines are traditionally controlled by varying the pitch angle at high wind speeds in region 3 of the wind turbine operation. The pitch angles controllers are normally driven by electrical or hydraulic actuators. The motivation of this research is to design and implement a pitch angle control strategy at the outer section of the blade via a separated pitch control at blade tip (SePCaT). A pneumatic actuator is implemented to drive the pitch angle control mechanism by incorporating pneumatic actuated muscles (PAM) due to its high power/mass ratio, high specific work, and good contraction ratio while maintaining low weight at the tip of the blade. A sliding mode controller (SMC) is modeled and implemented on a redesigned 5MW wind turbine numerically. The hypothesis is that the SePCaT control strategy is effective and satisfactory pitch angle trajectory tracking is achievable. The method is adopted, the system is modeled, and the response was observed by subjecting the model dynamics to desired pitch angle trajectories. Initially comparative controller response with respect to desired trajectory revealed satisfactory pitch angle tracking but further investigation revealed chattering characteristics which was minimized by incorporating a saturation function. SePCaT offers an effective pitch angle control strategy which is smaller, lighter, reliable and efficient. (C) 2019 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.