Model Calibration of a Vertical Wind Power Plant using Dymola/Modelica

Abstract: Wind energy has been used by mankind since ancient times and the last
decades have seen large technological advancements in the field of wind turbines.
One technology, although not very common, for harnessing the energy in the wind is the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). These types of turbines have not been as successful as the horizantal axes wind turbines (HAWTs) regarding efficiency and commercialization. There are however indications that the VAWTs are favorable for some applications.
For researchers and developers, identifying and assessing losses occurring in
a wind turbine or in any electricity generating device is important for finding
potential improvements. The losses can be dependent on a range of parameters.
A method has been developed in this project, focusing on vertical axis wind turbines, with the purpose to assess and quantify these parameters using Dymola. Models of the different components of a wind turbine have been developed to be used for calibration, that is, assessing the parameters. The calibration has been conducted by using the calibrate function in the Design Library in Dymola.
Some of the models are based on previous master thesis work and these were translated from the SPOT library to the Electric Power Library. The data collected for the calibration were mainly synthetic data taken from a Dymola
model of the entire wind turbine system, an approach using real measurement
data from an AC/DC/AC-converter was also attempted. The synthetic data were used with and without added noise to check the sensitivity of the calibration
process. The real measurement data were ltered to be suitable for calibration.
The methodology for calibration of the parameters is shown to be functional
for the rotor and generator component. The calibration of the converter is troublesome since only one parameter is affecting the outputs. Calibration
using synthetic data is performed, however no calibration using real data were
finalized.