Design and Realization of DC Motor and Drives Based Simulator for Small Wind Turbine

Liu Guangchen
Faculty of Energy and Power Engineering Inner Mongolia University of Technology Hohhot, China liugc@imut.edu.cn
AbstractThe operation principle of a wind turbine and the feasibility of its characteristic simulation using closed-loop control of DC motor torque were analyzed in this paper. The architecture of DC motor based simulator of a small wind turbine was designed, and its implementation scheme in which DC motor was driven by SIMOREG DC MASTER 6RA70 and the test system with PMSG (permanent magnet synchronous generator) were presented. Experimental results have shown that the wind turbine simulator proposed in the paper is able to simulate the torque-speed and power-speed characteristics of a small wind turbine, and provides a practical solution of the prime mover for the research on the wind power technology in laboratory. Keywords- wind turbine; simulator; DC motor and drives; wind power generation

Wang Shengtie, Zhang Jike

Faculty of Information Engineering Inner Mongolia University of Technology Hohhot, China wang_shengtie@imut.edu.cn; zhangjike@imut.edu.cn Most of previous research work focuses on simulating the characteristics of the wind turbine with gear box, whereas T n and P n characteristics of wind turbine are directly simulated in the larger wind speed range for studying the control technology of small wind power system in this paper. The operation principle of a wind turbine and DC motor is analyzed. The DC motor based simulator of a small wind turbine is designed, and its implementation scheme in which DC motor was driven by SIMOREG DC MASTER 6RA70 and the test system with PMSG is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the simulator is proved by the laboratory experiments.

II.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WIND TURBINE AND DC MOTOR

BASED SIMULATION

I.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, due to decreases of fossil fuels, the environmental pollution, and so on, the renewable energy generation technology has made substantial development, especially wind power technology. For the research on wind power technology, it is necessary to construct a simulator to simulate not only wind turbines without reliance on natural wind resources but the different wind turbines as well, because wind turbine simulator can reduce experimental costs and shorten R & D cycle of the new technologies. There have been some studies on wind turbine simulator based on induction motor [1-3], PMSM (permanent magnet synchronous machine) [4, 5] and DC motor [6-11]. Voltage source converter and vector control or direct torque control are mainly used to simulate the torque characteristics of the wind turbine in the first two methods. They have drawbacks of complex control systems and expensive ancillary equipment. A DC motor can serve as the prime mover of wind turbine simulator, for it is easy to control and its dynamic characteristics are excellent. The torque characteristics versus wind speed of the wind turbine and the wind velocity versus time are simulated, but the torque-speed ( T n ) characteristics are not described in [6-8]. The wind turbine simulator using speed control and current control was studied, but only the T n curves of 4m/s and 6m/s were given in [9, 10]. The feasibility of only maximum output power curve by the DC motor was testified using simulation and experiments in [11].
The project is funded by Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China (200508010801)

A. Characteristics of Wind Turbine According to the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine, its mechanical power is expressed as Po =

1 R 2 CP v3 2

(1)

where, CP is power coefficient, R is the radius of the rotor blade (m), is air density (kg/m3), v is the wind velocity (m/s).

CP is the function of the tip speed ratio at a particular blade pitch angle. is given by
v where, t is the angular velocity of wind turbine.

t R

(2)

Similarly, the rotor torque can also be calculated by using a so-called torque coefficient of CT , as follows
T= Po

1 R 3CT v 2 2

(3)

where, CT = CP .

978-1-4244-4813-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

CP 0.4

3~ 380V

0.3

0.2
* Ia

ACR PI A/D
uk

voltage compensation

calculating

D/A

gate-trigger circuit

0.1

10

12

wind velocity detected speed

(a) Cp- curve

=
Rt v
CT = CT ( )
wind turbine model

I be

CT
0.04

T = 1 R 2 v 2CT 2

1 Cm

Ia

0.03

0.02

Fig.3 Architecture of wind turbine simulator

0.01

10

12

(b) CT- curve

Fig.1 Cp- and CT- curves of a wind turbine

Fig.1 shows the CP and CT curves of a wind turbine [11]. Based on these curves, the P n and T n characteristics of wind turbine for different wind velocities can be calculated by equation (1) and (3).
B. Characteristics Simulation of Wind Turbine Based on DC Motor The steady-state mathematical model of a DC motor is written as

in Fig.2. As can be seen from the figure, a family of parallel mechanical property lines can be got by regulating the armature voltage of the motor. For any point on T n characteristic curve of wind turbine, a corresponding voltage can be found out to meet its torque and speed requirements. In other words, the T n characteristics simulation of wind turbine can be achieved by means of closed-loop torque control. So can the P n characteristics simulation of wind turbine. III. DESIGN OF WIND TURBINE SIMULATOR BASED ON DC
MOTOR

U a = E + I a R (4) E = Ce n T = C I e m a where, Ce and Cm are the electromagnetic constant and torque constant respectively, is the main flux, Te is the electromagnetic torque, n is the rotating speed, R is the total resistance of armature circuit, U a is the armature voltage, I a is the armature current and E is the armature EMF of the DC motor.
According to the mathematical models of DC motor, its open-loop mechanical properties in different armature voltage are shown as curves 1-4 in Fig.2. A T n characteristics of the wind turbine in a specific wind speed is shown as curve 5

A. Principle of Wind Turbine Simulator The wind turbine simulator is made up of DC motor, threephase thyristor converter, the controller and wind turbine model, as shown in Fig.3. The terminal voltage of the separately excited DC motor is regulated by the thyristor converter, the controller uses a PI regulator with forward compensation control, and wind turbine model primarily calculates the torque coefficient and the torque.

The simulation scheme based on torque control is adopted in this paper. For a given wind turbine, the desired shaft torque is calculated on the basis of its model, the wind velocity and the detected rotation speed of the unit, then the armature current of DC motor is regulated to match with the desired torque by the closed-loop controller, so that the motor torque is equal to the output torque of simulated wind turbine.
B. Disturbance Compensation When the main flux changes because of the excitation current fluctuations caused by variations of grid voltage, I a should be adjusted to make Te remain unchanged, that is
* Te = Cm I a = Cm 1 I a

(5)

* where, 1 is the main flux after the grid voltage fluctuates, I a is the desired armature current after compensation.

Obviously, we have

Fig.2 T-n curves of a DC motor and wind turbine

* Ia =

I I a = be I a 1 Ib

(6)

where, I be is the rated excitation current, I b is the excitation current after the grid voltage varies. Meanwhile, the rectifier output voltage will deviate from the expected value because of variations of grid voltage. The forward compensation control is used to adjust the delay angle such that the expected value U a remains unchanged under grid voltage variations. To this end, a linear correction unit is added between the control signal uk and
* uk = uk + uk U 2 u k = U u k 2

(7)

where, uk is the compensation value of uk , U 2 and U 2 are secondary side voltage of rectifier transformer and its deviations respectively. IV. REALIZATION OF WIND TURBINE SIMULATOR BASED ON SIMOREG DC MASTER
ai a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6

Fig.5 Flow chart of control program in SCC TABLE I POLYNOMIAL COEFFICIENTS OF TORQUE CHARACTERISTICS value 1.1795023963e-002 2.4778478507e-003 -6.5659246329e-003 8.6945285059e-003 -5.3931176722e-003 1.5664903422e-003 -6.1223373393e-005 ai a7 a8 a9 a10 a11 a12 a13 value -1.0139248910e-004 3.4654555630e-005 -5.7492199923e-006 5.5929520891e-007 -3.2418775078e-008 1.0391895280e-009 -1.4210983017e-011

A. Realization of Simulator System The simulator system consists of wind turbine simulator and test subsystem, as shown in Fig.4. SIMOREG DC MASTER 6RA70 is used to drive DC motor in simulating wind turbine, for it configures the simulator flexibly and is easy to implement closed-loop control and tune controller parameters. Furthermore, it can reduce the impact of grid voltage fluctuations because of its constant exciting current regulation and voltage compensation. B. Realization of Wind Turbine Simulator The sample conditioning circuit converts the output of the voltage sensors CHV-25P which detects the tachogenerator voltage into the required signal of C8051F410 for the A/D input. In the same way, the output conditioning circuit converts the D/A output which represents the desired armature current into the required input signal of 6RA70, then closed-loop control for armature current regulation is carried out by 6RA70.

stored in the Flash memory of C8051F410. In order to reflect any value of the CT curve accurately, linear interpolation method is used. In addition, a lower boundary of the desired armature current is set to ensure that the DC motor can be started when its rotating speed is lower than 20r/min. C. Test Subsystem Test subsystem shown in Fig.4 is specially designed to verify the correctness and accuracy of the proposed wind turbine simulator, where the rotating speed of DC motorPMSG unit is indirectly controlled by regulating the input voltage of the Buck converter which is of a almost constant output voltage clamped by the battery in a PWM control. Its control block diagram is shown in Fig.6, and its control algorithm is implemented in another SCC of C8051F410. The designed wind turbine simulator can operate in both stable and unstable areas of its T n curve as a result of speed closed-loop control of PMSG. Therefore, the T n and P n

The flow chart of control program in SCC is shown in Fig.5. Here, the torque coefficient curve is fitted with 13th order polynomial CT ( ) = a0 + ai i (its coefficients shown in
n i =1

Table I) and its value is derived by Look-Up Table that is

Conditioning circuit of output signal SCC C8051F410 Voltage detection and conditioning circuit
TG

Vg

3~ 380V

SIMOREG DC MASTER 6RA70

M Voltage detection and conditioning circuit SCC C8051F410 IGBT drive circuit

Vg*

Vg

PI
-

PWM

Buck

wind turbine simulator

test subsystem

Fig.4 System diagram of wind turbine simulator

Fig.6 Control block diagram of test subsystem

simulated torque of the wind turbine is reduced to 1/15 of its original torque, and the rotating speed remains the same. The T n and P n characteristics are measured and shown in Fig.8 when the wind velocity is set to 5m/s, 7m/s, 9m/s and 11m/s respectively. For the curves of 11m/s that is higher than the rated wind speed, the output power of the simulator is limited to less than rated power, so that the folded tail vane property of small wind turbine is simulated. Experimental results show that the mechanical characteristics of the wind turbine simulator are consistent with those of the actual wind turbines.
Fig.7 Experimental setup of wind turbine simulator

characteristics of wind turbine simulator can be experimentally obtained by utilizing this test subsystem. V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

VI.

CONCLUSION

The experimental setup is shown in Fig.7, and the parameters of the wind turbine, DC motor and PMSG in Table II. Because of the limited capacity of the test subsystem, the
TABLE II PARAMETERS OF A WIND TURBINE, DC MOTOR AND PMSG equipment wind turbine parameters rated power: 5kW, rated speed: 223 r/min, cut-in wind speed: 4m/s, rated wind speed: 9m/s, rotor diameter: 7m type: Z2-32 separately-excited, rated power: 2.2kW, rated excitation voltage: 220V, rated armature voltage: 220V, operating mode: continuous, rated armature current: 12.4A, rated speed:1500r/min rated power: 1kW, rated speed: 360r/min, rated armature voltage: 56V, flux induced by magnets: 0.26Wb

DC motor

The wind power is of promising future due to its economic and environmental benefits, and has become one of the research focuses of renewable energy development and application. For studying the small wind power system, the DC motor based simulator of a small wind turbine was designed, and its implementation scheme in which DC motor was driven by SIMOREG DC MASTER 6RA70 was given in this paper. Experimental results show that the DC motor adopted torque closed-loop control can operate in accordance with the T n characteristics of the wind turbine. The wind turbine simulator proposed in the paper has the merits of easy realization and high reliability, and provides a practical solution for the prime mover of wind power generation system that does not rely on natural conditions and the actual wind turbine, so that it is able to improve greatly the efficiency of the investigation of wind power generation techniques in laboratory. REFERENCES
[1] H. M. Kojabadi, L. C. Chang, T. Boutot, Development of a novel wind turbine simulator for wind energy conversion systems using an invertercontrolled induction motor, IEEE Trans. on Energy Conversion, vol. 19, No.3, September 2004, pp. 547-552. [2] Y. Q. Jia, Z. A. Wang, Z. Q. Yang, Experimental study of control strategy for wind generation system, IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 17-21 June 2007, pp. 1202-1207. [3] Y. Q. Jia, A wind turbine simulator for wind generation reseach, Acta Energy Solaris Sinica, vol. 25, No.6, December 2004, pp. 735-739.(in chinese) [4] K. Xu, M. Q. Hu, R. Y .Yan, Wind turbine simulator using PMSM, 42nd International Universities Power Engineering Conference, 4-6 September 2007, pp. 732-737. [5] Y. Q. Jia, B. G. Cao, Z. Q. Yang, A fast response MPPT control method for wind turbine simulator platform, Acta Energy Solaris Sinica, vol. 25,No.3,June 2004, pp. 364-370. (in chinese) [6] P. E. Battaiotto, R. J. Mantz, P. F. Puleston, A wind turbine emulator based on a dual DSP processor system, Control Eng. Practice, vol.4, No.9, September 1996, pp. 1261-1266. [7] R. II. Ovando, J. Aguayo, M. Cotorogea, Emulation of a low power wind turbine with a DC motor in Matlab/Simulink, Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 17-21 June 2007, pp. 859-864. [8] M. Chinchilla, S. Arnaltes, J. L. Rodriguez-Amenedo, Laboratory setup for wind turbine emulation, IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology, 8-10 December 2004, pp. 553-557. [9] W. W. Li, D.G. Xu, W. Zhang, Research on wind turbine emulation based on DC motor, 2nd IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, 23-25 May 2007, pp. 2589-2593 [10] H. F. Ma, W. Zhang, W. W. Li, Research on wind turbine emulation based on DC motor, Acta Energy Solaris Sinica, vol.28, No.11, November 2007, pp. 1278-1283.(in chinese) [11] S. J. Bian, Z. P. Pan, Y. K. He, The imitation of the fan characteristic by the DC motor, Acta Energy Solaris Sinica, vol.24, No.3, June 2003, pp. 360-364.(in chinese)

PMSG

18

theoretical value 11m/s

16

9m/s 7m/s 5m/s

14

12 10

T ( N m)

8 6

50

100

150
(a) T-n curves

200

250

n (r / min)

300

450 400 350 300

theoretical value 11m/s 9m/s 7m/s 5m/s

P (W )

250 200 150 100 50

0 50 100 150 (b) P-n curves 200 250

n (r / min)

300

Fig.8 Output characteristic curves of wind turbine simulator