US Patent:
20140271184, Sep 18, 2014
Inventors:
- West Conshohocken PA, US
Jeffrey Austin Butterworth - Rocklin CA, US
Jehan Zeb Khan - Lisle IL, US
Guojian Lin - West Sacramento CA, US
Edward Anthony Mayda - Thornton CO, US
Erick James Richards - Rocklin CA, US
Tobias Guenther Wehrhan - Davis CA, US
Assignee:
FRONTIER WIND, LLC - West Conshohocken PA
International Classification:
F03D 7/02
Abstract:
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.