Modular mechatronic modelling for wind turbine generating systems based on an integrated finite element approach

Wind energy is nowadays the fastest-growing energy source in the world, which has been attracting a lot of research interest in wind turbine generator systems. This paper concerns the modelling and simulation of wind turbine generating systems using the flexible multibody simulation software SAMCEF/MECANO. Firstly, it introduces the formulation of an extension of the generalized-alpha method, which is integrated into the flexible multibody dynamics solver for strongly-coupled simulation of mechatronic systems, and then emphasizes on the doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) and the controller models, which are developed as modular components of the wind turbine package. The mechatronic systems are simulated upon this strongly-coupled approach and simulation results show the validity of the newly-developed solver and the models. The interest of this work is to analyze the control-generator-structure interactions in a wind turbine. The general aim is to develop a computer-aided tool for customization, fast-prototyping and optimal design of wind turbine systems based on the dynamic simulation of the overall system.