Vibration Ccontrol of Tuned Rolling-ball Damper in Wind Turbines

Abstract:

This study investigates the use of a kind of rolling-balls tuned mass dampers as an effective method to reduce the wind-induced vibration of wind turbines. The noval damper is characterized by single or multiple steel balls rolling in a spherical bowl. A 1/20 scaled experimental model was designed to investigate the performance of the damper through shaking table tests. The equivalent ground acceleration was inputted to obtain the equivalent dynamic response under different wind load cases. A series of forced vibration experiments were performed on the shaking table. The results indicate that the damper can effectively improve the damping capacity of the model. The standard deviations of the base moment and the top displacement were reduced 20%-46%. The damper is very simple in the construction and has a good economic performance, so it is a feasible means to suppress the wind- induced vibration of wind turbines.

Key words:wind turbine tower; vibration control; tuned rolling-ball damper; shaking table; wind load