Emulation of output characteristics of rotor blades using a hardware-in-loop wind turbine simulator

Control algorithms and implementation issues for a wind turbine simulator are presented for realistic emulation of variable characteristics of wind and rotor blades using a lab-scale motor and generator set. A randomized wind speed pattern is generated with given average speed and turbulence coefficient. Aerodynamic characteristics of rotor blade are considered as a real-time function of rotating speed and wind speed. Periodic pulsations of torque are also included as a tower effect. In addition, arbitrary size of inertia can be emulated instead of actual rotor blade inertia using the proposed algorithm of electronic inertia compensation. Proposed algorithms are verified by the computer simulations and experiments using a hardware-in-loop wind turbine simulator.