Actuation of load management devices on aerodynamic blades

• Main Authors: WEHRHAN, TOBIAS GUENTHER, BAKER, JONATHON PAUL, RICKARDS, ERICK JAMES, KHAN, JEHAN ZEB, LIN, GUOJIAN, BUTTERWORTH, JEFFREY AUSTIN, MAYDA, EDWARD ANTHONY
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Polish
• Published: 19.07.2021
• Subjects: BLASTING; HEATING; LIGHTING; MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER; WEAPONS; WIND MOTORS; WIND, SPRING WEIGHT AND MISCELLANEOUS MOTORS

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided for actuating less than all of a plurality of load management devices on a wind turbine and/or a wind turbine blade. In some embodiments, the actuation sequences may be a root-to-tip, tip-to root, maximum-distributed-load, random, and/or a cycle-count actuation sequence. Further, a combination of two or more actuation sequences may be utilized to achieve a desired result. The system may choose an appropriate blade-based and/or rotor-based actuation sequence according to operating conditions, may alternate actuation sequences, and/or may employ different actuation sequences among the plurality of blades of a wind turbine. The load management devices may be actuated to different maximum heights and/or may be configured to be actuated to variable heights. The load management devices may be included as part of a distributed management system providing a corresponding controller and/or sensor at each load management device.