Stress Management of Wind Turbine Components by using PCM-Integrated Power Modules

Offshore wind turbine components face cyclic and high mechanical and electrical stresses due to fluctuating wind conditions and harsh marine environments, but there is no coordinated stress management due to the low thermal inertia of the power electronic system. This paper presents a novel power module packaging by integrating phase change materials (PCMs) to provide a short-term overload capability. Based on this superior function, this paper proposes a stress management strategy to mitigate the mechanical stress on the pitch system by temporarily overloading the turbine powertrain electrical conversion system and increasing the rated wind speed accordingly. A finite element analysis (FEA) model and a multiphysics simulation are built to validate the performance of the strategy, and it is found that the number of pitch angle cycles can be reduced by 50% at most.