DETERMINING A YAW DIRECTION OF A WIND TURBINE

• US 20160032897A1
• Filed: 05/06/2015
• Published: 02/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: HAWKINS, SAMUEL H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,958,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 17/00 Monitoring or testing of wind motors, e.g. diagnostics testing during commissioning of wind motors F03D13/30
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/0204 for orientation in relation to wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/321 Wind directions
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/802 Calibration thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/52 using a receiving antenna moving, or appearing to move, in a cyclic path to produce a Doppler variation of frequency of the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/54 the apparent movement of the antenna being produced by coupling the receiver cyclically and sequentially to each of several fixed spaced antennas
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction

Abstract

A method for determining a yaw direction of a wind turbine includes the following steps, receiving at a component of the wind turbine a signal broadcasted from a source, determining a direction from the component towards the source based on the received signal, determining the yaw direction of the wind turbine in relation to the determined direction towards the source is provided. Further, a wind turbine and a device as well as a computer program product and a computer readable medium are disclosed for performing the method.

Claims

1. A method for determining a yaw direction of a wind turbine comprising:

receiving at a component of the wind turbine a signal broadcasted from a source;

determining a direction from the component towards the source based on the received signal; and

determining the yaw direction of the wind turbine in relation to the determined direction towards the source.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the yaw direction is determined based on a Radio Direction Finding method.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the Radio Direction Finding method is based on a Pseudo-Doppler method.

4. The method according claim 1, wherein

the signal is received via an antenna and/or receiver being attached to the component, the antenna and/or receiver having a calibrated 0°

-direction in relation to a direction of the component;

an offset angle is determined based on the calibrated 0°

-direction in relation to the determined direction; and

the yaw direction is determined based on the offset angle and the determined direction.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein

the signal is broadcasted from the source located at a source-specific geographic position;

the broadcasted signal is received at a component-specific geographic position;

a relative compass heading is derived by processing the component-specific geographic position and the source-specific geographic position; and

a yaw angle of the wind turbine is derived based

on the offset angle, and

on the relative compass heading.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the yaw angle is determined in relation towards a defined cardinal direction.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the broadcasted signal is received at a nacelle or rotor of the wind turbine.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the yaw direction is determined

continuously,

periodically, or

within at least one defined time interval, or

one-time.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the geographic position is defined according to

a Geographic Latitude and Longitude coordinate system,

an Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system, or

an Universal Polar Stereographic coordinate system.

11. A device comprising and/or being associated with a processor unit and/or hard-wired circuit and/or a logic device that is arranged such that the method according to claim 1 is executable thereon.

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the device is a yaw encoder.

13. A computer program product directly loadable into a memory of a digital computer, comprising software code portions for performing the steps of the method according to claim 1.

14. A computer readable medium, having computer-executable instructions adapted to cause a computer system to perform the steps of the method according to claim 1.

10. A wind turbine, comprising:

a receiver for receiving a signal broadcasted from a source;

a processing unit that is arranged for;

determining a direction from the receiver towards the source based on the received signal, and

determining a yaw direction of the wind turbine in relation to the determined direction towards the source.