TURBINE AND SYSTEM FOR GENERATING POWER FROM FLUID FLOW AND METHOD THEREFOR
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Accused Products
Abstract
A turbine for use with a turbine generator, the turbine including at least one turbine blade for positioning in a flowpath, a hub mounting the at least one turbine blade, and a rotatable shaft in operational communication with the hub via a hinge assembly, an axis of the hub being independent of an axis of the shaft. The hinge assembly is disposed between the shaft and the hub and configured to adjust an angle therebetween. A controller assembly is configured to adjust at least one operational characteristic of the hinge assembly during turbine operation. In one embodiment the operational characteristic is a teeter angle of the hinge assembly. In one embodiment operational characteristic is a stiffness or damping force. Methods for using and controlling a fluid turbine are also disclosed.
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Citations
107 Claims
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1-70. -70. (canceled)
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71. A turbine for use with a turbine generator, said turbine comprising:
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at least one turbine blade for positioning in a fluid flowpath; a hub mounting the at least one turbine blade; a rotatable shaft in operational communication with the hub via a hinge assembly, an axis of the hub being independent of an axis of the shaft; wherein the hinge assembly is disposed between the shaft and the hub to allow the hub to teeter at an angle relative to the shaft, and the hinge assembly is configured to adjust at least one of the teeter angle and dampening of the teeter. - View Dependent Claims (72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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96. A wind turbine system for generating electric power, comprising:
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a tower; a rotor assembly disposed on said tower including at least one blade positioned in a fluid flow and disposed for rotation about an axis; a hinge assembly configured to allow a change in a teeter angle of the rotor assembly; a hinge stiffness and dampening change mechanism for dampening movement of the teeter angle by the hinge assembly; a monitoring assembly for monitoring a measured value indicative of at least one of the fluid flow, rotation of the at least one blade, and a load on the at least one blade; a processor for generating an estimated value of actual power generated by said wind turbine system based on the rotation of the at least one blade, generating a control power value based on the measured value, determining if the control value is greater than the estimated value, and transmitting a control signal to the hinge stiffness and dampening change mechanism based on the determining.
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97. A turbine for use with a turbine generator, said turbine comprising:
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at least one elongated turbine blade for positioning in a fluid field, the at least one blade mounted to a hub; a rotatable shaft in rotational communication with the hub, the hub being pivotally connected to the shaft in a teetered configuration; and adjusting means coupled to the hub and the shaft, the adjusting means configured to adjust an operational parameter of the hub or the shaft in response to changes in the fluid field upstream from the turbine. - View Dependent Claims (98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104)
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105. A method of adjusting fluid turbine in a fluid flow, said method comprising:
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providing a fluid turbine including; at least one turbine blade positioned in a fluid flow; a hub connected to the at least one turbine blade along a rotational axis of the at least one blade; a rotatable shaft in operational communication with the hub via a hinge assembly; the hinge assembly disposed between the hub and the shaft, the hinge assembly configured to control an orientation of the hub in a direction of wind flow, the hinge assembly including; a hinge member forming a teeter angle between the shaft and the rotational axis of the at least one blade, the hinge member including a damping member configured to provide a biasing dampening force against angular teeter movement of the hub relative to the shaft; and a hinge controller configured to adjust the biasing force of the hinge member movement; and actively adjusting the dampening force of the hinge member in response to at least one of the fluid flow upstream from the turbine and present loading of the at least one blade. - View Dependent Claims (106, 107)
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Specification