Study of vibration control using laboratory test rig of wind turbine tower-nacelle system with MR damper based tuned vibration absorber

Wind turbine tower dynamic stress is related to the fatigue wear and reliability of the whole wind turbine structure. This paper deals with the problem of tower vibration control using a specially designed and built laboratory model. The considered wind turbine tower-nacelle model consists of a vertically arranged stiff rod (representing the tower), and a system of steel plates (representing nacelle and turbine assemblies) fixed at its top. The horizontally aligned tuned vibration absorber (TVA) with magnetorheological (MR) damper is located also at the top of the rod (in nacelle system). Force excitation sources applied horizontally to the tower itself and to the nacelle were both considered. The MR damper real-time control algorithms, including ground hook control and its modification, sliding mode control, linear and nonlinear (cubic and square root) damping, and adaptive solutions are compared to the open-loop case with various constant MR damper input current values and system without MR TVA (i.e., MR TVA in “locked” state). Comprehensive experimental analyses and their results are presented.