Research seminar "Farm Cooperative Control: Methods and Experimental Verification"

Abstract:

In the past, most of the research in wind energy technology focused on the optimization of wind turbines. In recent years, interest has expanded from the level of the individual machines to the one of wind farms. Optimal site selection, layout and control of wind farms are extremely challenging tasks that require an understanding of the aerodynamic interactions among the various machines and with the environment. These problems that are not yet fully understood and are still challenging to model in an accurate way. In this paper we describe our ongoing work on wind farm control. Ad hoc observers are used for detecting wake interaction conditions, in turn enabling cooperative control strategies for power maximization and load mitigation by power curtailment and active wake deflection. Our research program includes a scaled experimental facility for the simulation of wind farms in a boundary layer wind tunnel, which is used for the validation of simulation tools and the verification of control strategies.

Biography:

Professor Bottasso's research interests are in wind energy and rotorcraft technology, with particular reference to modeling and simulation, aero-servo-elasticity and control. On these topics he has co-authored over 270 publications, including about 100 peer reviewed journal papers. Professor Bottasso received a PhD in aerospace engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Since May 2013 Professor Bottasso has held the Chair of Wind Energy at TUM. He previously taught flight mechanics and wind energy in the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he reached the rank of full professor. Professor Bottasso has held visiting positions at various institutions, including Aalborg University in Denmark, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, NASA Langley Research Center and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.