Modeling and Control of Wind Turbine Tower Vibrations

Developed is a model for studying the vibrations of a wind turbine tower subjected to random wind loadings. The tower is modeled as an elastic Euler‐Bernoulli beam, viscously damped and fixed at the bottom. The concentrated mass of the turbine is located at the top of the tower where also the wind loading is applied as a step function. The partial differential equation of the model is managed by the method of separation of variables and along with the applied modal analysis produces an efficient numerical‐analytic solution algorithm. Demonstrated is the ability for dissipating the vibrations through a properly designed controller. Numerical results are provided.