Energies, Vol. 12, Pages 3178: Characteristic Analysis of DFIG Wind Turbine under Blade Mass Imbalance Fault in View of Wind Speed Spatiotemporal Distribution (Energies)

The blade mass imbalance fault is one of the common faults of the DFIG (Doubly-Fed Induction Generator) wind turbines (WTs). In this paper, considering the spatiotemporal distribution of natural wind speed and the influence of wind shear and tower shadow effect, the influence of blade mass imbalance faults on the electrical characteristics of DFIG WTs is analyzed. Firstly, the analytical expressions and variation characteristics of electromagnetic torque and electromagnetic power under blade mass imbalance are derived before and after consideration of the spatiotemporal distribution of wind speed. Then simulations on the MATLAB/Simulink platform were done to verify the theoretical analysis results. The theoretical analysis and simulation results show that, considering the spatiotemporal distribution of wind speed and the influence of wind shear and tower shadow effect, the blade mass imbalance fault will cause fluctuation at the frequency of 1P (P = the frequency of rotor rotation), 3P, and 6P on electromagnetic power. Fluctuation at 1P is caused by mass imbalance while fluctuation at 3P and 6P are caused by wind speed spatiotemporal distribution; the amplitude of fluctuation at 1P is proportional to the degree of the imbalance fault. Since the equivalent wind speed has been used in this paper instead of the average wind speed, the data is more suitable for the actual operation of the WT in the natural world and can be applied for fault diagnosis in field WT operation.