Control of wind turbines with 'Smart' rotors: Proof of concept & LPV subspace identification

Active control is becoming more and more important for the wind energy community. If we compare the 'old' stall regulated turbines with today's individual pitch controlled turbines we see that the loads can be considerably reduced, leading to lighter or larger turbines. However, limited actuator bandwidth and component fatigue impose significant constraints on the pitch system. Furthermore, with the trend to go offshore it is of interest to increase the rotor diameter as much as possible because the foundation costs of offshore wind turbines amount to a large part of the total costs. Due to the increasing size of wind turbines and the limitations of individual pitch control, it is thus necessary to look ahead to new control concepts which can impose a force profile matching the distributed nature of turbulence, and guarantee an economic lifetime of 20 years for the next generation of offshore wind turbines (diameter over 150 meters). In this thesis we perform a feasibility test of a novel concept and we develop experimental modeling tools to obtain Linear Parameter Varying models for controller design.Mechanical Maritime and Materials Engineerin