Robust Control Synthesis for Gust Load Alleviation of Large Aeroelastic Wind Turbine Models

This paper introduces a methodology for the design of gust load control systems directly from large aeroelastic models. Firstly, a state-space representation of the vortex particle unsteady aerodynamics suitable for control synthesis is implemented. Secondly, through the use of robust controllers, large reductions in loadings are demonstrated. Thirdly, controllers synthesized from models of coarse spatial discretisation that are an order of magnitude smaller in size than converged models, are shown to be capable of rejecting disturbances on the fully converged models. Their performances are also comparable to expensive higher order controllers developed from full models.