Wind sensor system using blade signals

1. A process control system with a wind-velocity-field measurement for use in a wind turbine having a rotor with a plurality of blades, the process control system comprising:

a memory storing a wind-velocity-field data set including an array of wind-velocity-field characteristics associated with an array of known blade parameters;

a sensor operable to generate a run-time signal representing a run-time parameter of at least one blade of the plurality of blades, for a wind condition; and

a process controller operable to (i) access the run-time parameter generated by the sensor and the wind-velocity-field data set, (ii) compute a run-time wind-velocity-field parameter as a function of the run-time parameter and the wind-velocity-field data set, and (iii) generate a wind turbine control signal as a function of the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter for the wind condition.

2. The process control system of claim 1 , wherein the run-time parameter represents a physical quantity of at least one of a blade strain and a blade deflection, and wherein the physical quantity is measured at a predetermined location on the at least one blade.

3. The process control system of claim 1 , wherein the wind-velocity-field parameter comprises at least one of wind speed, wind direction, linear wind shear in a horizontal plane and linear wind shear in a vertical plane.

4. The process control system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor associated with each of the plurality of blades, each said sensor operable to generate a run-time blade signal representing a run-time blade parameter for each of the plurality of blades, the process controller operable to compute the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter from the run-time blade parameters for the plurality of blades using a multi-blade coordinate transformation.

5. The process control system of claim 4 , wherein the process controller is operable to compute the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter having a constant value portion and a cyclical value portion for each sensor.

6. The process control system of claim 4 , further comprising a filter operable to remove aliasing errors in the run-time blade parameters.

7. The process control system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a first sensor associated with each of the plurality of blades, each said first sensor operable to generate a first run-time signal representing a first run-time blade parameter for each of the plurality of blades, the process controller operable to compute a first run-time wind-velocity-field parameter from the first run-time blade parameters for the plurality of blades using a first multi-blade coordinate transformation;

a second sensor associated with each of the plurality of blades, each said second sensor operable to generate a second run-time blade signal representing a second run-time blade parameter for each of the plurality of blades which is different than the first run-time blade parameter, the process controller operable to compute a second run-time wind-velocity-field parameter from the second run-time blade parameters for the plurality of blades using a second multi-blade coordinate transformation; and

wherein the process controller is operable to compute the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter from the first and second run-time blade parameters.

8. The process control system of claim 7 , further comprising a first filter operable to remove aliasing errors in the first run-time blade parameter, and a second filter operable to remove aliasing errors in the second run-time parameter.

9. The process control system of claim in claim 8 , wherein at least one of the filters is a low-pass filter with a filter corner frequency below three times a rotation frequency of the rotor.

10. The process control system of claim 1 , further comprising a calibration module operable to provide at least one of a calibration gain and a calibration offset to the run-time signal for calibrating the sensor.

11. The process control system of claim 10 , wherein the calibration module provides a variable gain to the run-time signal for calibrating the sensor.

12. A wind turbine system including the process control system of claim 1 , and further comprising a wind turbine having a rotor with at least two blades.

13. The wind turbine system of claim 12 , wherein the process controller is operable to adjust an operating state of the wind turbine in response to the wind turbine control signal.

14. A method of generating a control signal for use in a wind turbine having a rotor with two or more blades, comprising:

generating a run-time signal with a sensor measuring a blade parameter on at least one blade of a wind turbine, the blade parameter being indicative of at least one wind-velocity-field characteristic for a wind condition;

storing a wind-velocity-field data set in a memory, the wind-velocity-field data set including an array of wind-velocity-field characteristic associated with an array of known blade parameters;

accessing the run-time signal generated by the sensor and the wind-velocity-field data set;

computing a run-time wind-velocity-field parameter as a function of the run-time signal; and

generating a wind turbine control signal as a function of the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter for the wind condition.

15. A computer readable storage medium, storing instruction executable by a process controller, for performing the method of claim 14 .

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising computing the run-time wind-velocity-field parameter having a constant value portion and a cyclical value portion for each sensor.

17. A computer readable storage medium, storing instruction executable by a process controller, for performing the method of claim 16 .