Granted Patent B2

US 12,435,701 · App. 18/446,354 · Granted Oct 7, 2025

Inventors: Ulf Schaper (Staffhorst, DE); Wolfgang de Boer (Moormerland, DE); Dennis Gäbel (Meppen, DE); Rainer Kuhlemann (Westoverledingen, DE); Wenzel Laska (Aurich, DE)

Assignee: Wobben Properties GmbH

F03D17/029F05B2260/83F05B2270/328F05B2270/329F05B2270/802

Abstract

Claims (61)

1. A method for determining a blade misposition of a rotor blade of a rotor of a wind power installation having multiple rotor blades with an adjustable blade angle, the method comprising:

detecting an azimuthal movement of a nacelle of the wind power installation, the nacelle having a rotor and an azimuth adjustment device, the azimuth adjustment device having at least one activable azimuth actuator configured to adjust an azimuthal position of the nacelle, wherein the detecting of the azimuthal movement of the nacelle occurs while the at least one azimuth actuator is inactive; and

determining the blade misposition on the basis of the detected azimuthal movement,

wherein the blade misposition describes a blade angle variance of the blade angle of the rotor blade from a reference blade angle,

wherein a circumferential rotational position of the rotor is referred to as the rotor position,

wherein a recorded azimuth response is evaluated by recording an integral over the recorded azimuth response, and

wherein the integral is used to determine an amplitude of an assumed sinusoidal azimuth response.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the blade misposition includes operating an azimuth locking brake to prevent the azimuthal position from being adjusted.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

checking whether one, multiple or all detection prerequisites are met from the list comprising:

the at least one azimuth actuator is inactive;

an azimuth locking brake has been operated; and

a pitch device for adjusting the blade angles is inactive,

wherein the rotor has at least one predeterminable minimum detection speed.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one minimum detection speed is at least 25% of a rated speed of the rotor.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one minimum detection speed is at least 40% of a rated speed of the rotor.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the azimuthal movement is detected by detecting the azimuth response dependent on the rotor position as the response of the azimuthal position, and

characteristics of the recorded azimuth response are used to determine the blade misposition.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

to record the azimuth movement, an azimuth position relative to a corresponding rotor position is recorded in an azimuth curve, and

to determine the blade misalignment, the azimuth curve is evaluated as a function of a rotor position.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the recorded azimuth response is used to compute a 1P component, wherein

the 1P component describes an oscillating signal with a period over one rotor revolution, and

the 1P component is taken as a basis for determining the blade misposition, wherein

the 1P component is computed using an amplitude and a phase related to the rotor position and/or

the 1P component is determined from the recorded azimuth response by using a Fourier transformation.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein:

the recorded azimuth response is evaluated by recording an integral over half of one rotor revolution, and

the integral recorded over half of one rotor revolution is used to determine the amplitude of the assumed sinusoidal azimuth response with an assumed period length over one rotor revolution.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the recorded azimuth response is recorded over multiple rotor revolutions, and

the recorded azimuth response is used to compute an averaged azimuth response for one rotor revolution, involving averaging or otherwise filtering, for each rotor position, all respective values of the orientation response that have been recorded for this rotor position.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the recorded azimuth response is recorded over at least 10 revolutions.

12. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the recorded azimuth response is recorded over at least 1000 revolutions.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

azimuthal values as rotor-position-dependent values of the detected azimuthal movement are used to determine the blade misposition by way of comparison with azimuthal values recorded in preliminary investigations, wherein

respectively blade misposition values of the rotor blades are stored in a table for the amplitude and phase of a 1P component inferred from the detected azimuthal movement or from the recorded azimuth response.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

the azimuth adjustment device has a transmission having a gear elasticity for adjusting the nacelle,

wherein the transmission is arranged between a pinion, on the one hand, which engages with a ring gear, and the azimuth actuator and/or an azimuth brake, on the other hand, with the result that

the gear elasticity permits the detected azimuthal movement when the azimuth actuator is inactive or when the azimuth brake has been operated, and/or in that

there is provision for a gear slack between the pinion and the ring gear.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:

at least the detecting and the determining are each repeated after a predeterminable waiting period and/or another predefinable event in order to verify a possible change in the determined blade misposition, wherein

the predeterminable waiting period is at least one month.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the predeterminable waiting period is at least half a year.

17. A wind power installation, configured to determine a blade misposition of a rotor blade of a rotor of the wind power installation having multiple rotor blades with an adjustable blade angle, the wind power installation comprising:

a nacelle having a rotor and an azimuth adjustment device, the azimuth adjustment device having at least one activable azimuth actuator in order to adjust an azimuthal position of the nacelle;

a detection device configured to detect an azimuthal movement of the nacelle while the at least one azimuth actuator of the detection device is inactive; and

a computing unit configured to determine the blade misposition on the basis of the azimuthal movement detected in the detection,

wherein the blade misposition describes a blade angle variance of the blade angle of the rotor blade from a reference blade angle, and

wherein a circumferential rotational position of the rotor is referred to as the rotor position,

wherein a recorded azimuth response is evaluated by recording an integral over the recorded azimuth response, and

wherein the integral is used to determine an amplitude of an assumed sinusoidal azimuth response.

18. The wind power installation according to claim 17 , wherein:

the wind power installation has a control unit, and

the control unit is configured to carry out a method comprising:

detecting the azimuthal movement of the nacelle while the at least one azimuth actuator is inactive; and

determining the blade misposition on the basis of the detected azimuthal movement.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (11)