Prospects of linear model predictive control on a 10MW floating wind turbine

Abstract

The presented research has the objective of supporting the integrated conceptual design of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT). The dynamics of the multidisciplinary coupled system with the aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural dynamics, the catenary mooring lines and the controller shall be represented in simulation models adapted to the current design stage. Here, a linear model-predictive controller (MPC) as an optimal multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) controller is designed for a novel concept of the floating foundation for a 10MW wind turbine. The performance of this controller is easily adjustable by a cost function with multiple objectives. Therefore, the MPC can be seen as a benchmark controller in the concept phase, based on a simplified coupled simulation model with only approximate model information. The linear model is verified against its nonlinear counterpart and the performance of the MPC compared to a SISO PI-controller, which is also designed in this work. The developed models show to be well suited and the linear MPC shows a reduction of the rotor speed overshoot and tower bending from a deterministic gust.