Vibration Control in Wind Turbine Operation

Wind turbine blade vibration reduction device to suppress blade vibrations and prevent aeroelastic instability in large wind turbine blades. The device involves a series of vibration damping units arranged inside the blade between the webs. Each unit has two impact dampers in separate cavities separated by partitions. The dampers contain pendulum balls connected by springs and ropes to the blade webs and cavities. The pendulum balls collide as the blade oscillates, dissipating energy and reducing amplitude. Rubber pads isolate the dampers from the blade shell. The one-way energy dissipation device minimizes blade deformation, extends blade life, and prevents instability.

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Damping oscillations in wind turbine towers without moving the tower resonance frequency outside the operating range of the rotor. The method involves defining an exclusion zone around the rotor's natural frequency that induces tower oscillations. Below the exclusion zone, a first damping strategy is applied to push the tower frequency above the resonance. Above the exclusion zone, a different strategy is used to push the tower frequency below the resonance. This prevents tower oscillations at the resonance while avoiding the large exclusion zone required for conventional solutions.

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Passive aerodynamic damping structure for wind turbine blades to suppress blade vibrations under unstable airflow conditions. The damping structure has lobes and a rotary mechanism mounted at the blade tip. The lobes are eccentrically positioned around the rotary mechanism's axis. This offset creates a lever arm that activates the lobes when the blade vibrates. The lobes generate aerodynamic forces that dampen the vibrations. The lobes are positioned near the blade's aerodynamic center to maximize damping effect. The rotary mechanism allows blade rotation under stable airflow.

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Amplified damping transmission system for vibration control of wind turbines to reduce tower vibrations and mitigate fatigue. The system uses a cantilever truss, rocker, cable, U-shaped slots, and dampers to amplify and dissipate tower deformations. The cantilever truss converts rotational deformations at the upper tower into vertical deformations at the end. The rocker rotates with the end using the cable. The dampers at the rocker and ground dissipate energy from tower vibrations. This amplifies and transfers the deformations to the dampers for energy dissipation, reducing tower vibrations.

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Damping arrangement to mitigate oscillations in wind turbine towers when multiple turbines are close together. The arrangement uses damping elements between adjacent towers to counteract oscillations caused by wind and tower movements. The damping elements can be tensioning elements, hydraulic dampers, or rigid elements. Multiple damping elements are used between each pair of towers to dissipate oscillation forces in different directions. This prevents resonance and fatigue damage in the towers.

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Vibration damping system for wind turbines that improves damping capacity as wind direction and force change during operation. The system uses adjustable damping units with movable rings that cooperate to generate resistance to damp vibrations. This provides better damping compared to fixed dampers as the movable rings can adapt to different vibration frequencies and amplitudes caused by changing wind conditions.

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Real-time vibration control system for wind turbines that can actively and accurately mitigate turbine vibrations during operation. The system uses a movable mass block on the tower that can be adjusted by a controller to change the overall mass distribution of the turbine. By moving the mass block to positions with maximum vibration displacement, the natural frequency of the turbine can be altered in real time to break away from resonance frequencies. This allows the turbine to operate farther from vibration frequencies caused by wind load, preventing resonance and reducing overall vibration amplitudes.

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Wind turbine tower damping enhancement to reduce vibrations, loads, and weight compared to traditional dampers. The enhancement involves using magnetorheological dampers in the tower sections and real-time load sensing to adaptively control the dampers. This allows optimized damping for different operating conditions to mitigate tower vibrations and loads.

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Wind turbine tower design with a tiltable vibration damper to reduce fatigue and extend tower life. The tower has an internal vibration damper that can be adjusted to compensate for tower leaning. The damper has a central axis that can be rotated relative to the tower axis. This allows the damper to be optimized for vibration damping when the tower leans, reducing fatigue forces on the tower. The damper is tilted by mechanisms like sliding supports or rotating rods.

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Vibration dampers for wind turbine towers that reduce fatigue damage from tower vibrations without requiring significant tower thickness modifications. The dampers have offset horizontal axes relative to the tower axis and contain movable masses that trace annular arcs. This allows damping of tower vibrations without intersecting the tower longitudinal axis. The dampers are mounted near tower ends and within a certain distance from vibration node points. The offset axis prevents tower interference during mass movement. This configuration enables effective damping of tower vibrations without requiring thicker tower walls.

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A wind turbine blade with an integrated active damping system to reduce blade vibrations and improve blade durability. The damping system uses hydraulic actuators and mass-activated valves to actively counter blade vibrations. The actuators move a mass attached to the blade surface in response to sensed blade acceleration. This generates forces opposite to the vibrations and dissipates energy. The mass-activated valves control hydraulic fluid flow to the actuators based on blade acceleration measurements. The damping system can be retrofitted to existing blades and tuned without blade removal.

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A composite multi-system wind turbine vibration reduction and load reduction mechanism that aims to mitigate vibrations and loads in wind turbines without external energy. The mechanism uses a passive vibration control system that can be integrated into the wind turbine structure. It consists of a composite multi-system that includes a yaw system, a gear system, and a fluid system. The yaw system has wheels and a connecting rod that connects to the gear system. The gear system has a pair of gears with teeth that engage. The fluid system has a tank with liquid that sloshes when the turbine vibrates. The composite multi-system is tuned to the turbine's vibration frequencies. When the turbine vibrates, the fluid sloshing absorbs energy, the gears transmit forces, and the wheels rotate to dampen the vibrations.

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A system to suppress blade vibrations in dual-rotor wind turbines using real-time monitoring and active vortex generators. Multiple sensors on the blades provide data to a server which analyzes it to detect blade vibration like flutter and vortex shedding. If vibration is detected, an alarm is sent and vortex generators along the blade are activated. These generators change the airflow angle to disrupt vortex shedding and suppress vibration.

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Reducing fatigue of wind turbine nacelle structures by attaching tuned mass dampers to the inner support structure and tuning them to target specific low frequency vibration modes below 50 Hz. This allows dissipating energy from those modes, reducing nacelle displacement amplitudes and fatigue loads. The dampers can contain masses, springs, and dampers to match the targeted vibration frequencies.

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A fixed mass damper for offshore wind turbines that reduces tower vibrations and loads. The damper has a double-layer structure with orthogonally arranged damping units and springs. The nacelle sits on the top layer and slides horizontally on the layers. The dampers absorb vibration energy as the nacelle moves. The springs reset the motion and change the vibration frequency. This brakes tower-nacelle motion in multiple directions.

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A two-way negative stiffness damping system for wind turbines to mitigate lateral vibrations and improve efficiency. The system uses a configuration of hinged columns, outrigger trusses, dampers, preloaded springs, and support beams inside the tower. The outrigger trusses are connected to the tower and hinged to the dampers. Preloaded springs connect the hinged column to the support beams. This setup provides bidirectional negative stiffness damping, where the system stiffness decreases during vibrations to absorb energy and dampen oscillations. The preloaded springs provide initial stiffness. The hinges allow free lateral motion. The outrigger trusses and dampers dissipate energy. The configuration synergistically mitigates lateral tower vibrations during wind loads.

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Shear thickening tuned mass damping device for wind turbine towers that actively adjusts its direction to better dampen tower vibrations in response to wind loads. The device has a rotatable box containing shear thickening liquid that can change viscosity. The box is connected to both an X-direction main damping unit and a Y-direction auxiliary damping unit. A positioning component allows the box to rotate and adjust its orientation based on wind direction. This allows the damping force to align with the wind load direction for optimal vibration reduction.

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Optimizing wind turbine performance while mitigating blade vibrations through adaptive control. The method involves continuously monitoring blade vibrations, identifying when they exceed a threshold, and adjusting the wind turbine's operating settings to reduce vibrations. After making a setpoint change, the system keeps monitoring vibrations and makes further adjustments if needed. This allows dynamic adaptation to minimize vibrations without excessive power loss compared to fixed vibration limits.

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Reducing vibrations and loads in wind turbine blades during non-operational conditions like installation or maintenance when the hub is locked or idling. A mass damper is attached to the blades and has a movable mass component. Sensors detect blade vibrations and the damper is tuned electronically to counteract them. The damper can be remotely adjusted based on sensor data to optimize damping for specific blade vibration frequencies. This prevents damage when the turbine isn't generating power.

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Adjustable angle tuned mass damper for wind turbine blades to reduce vibrations and prevent blade failure. The damper is mounted inside the blade and can be adjusted to match the blade's natural frequency. It consists of a mass module, spring damping system, and guide system. The mass module can be customized with multiple mass blocks to find the blade's frequency. The spring damping system converts blade vibration energy into internal energy. The guide system allows angular adjustment to optimize damping.

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Vibration control system for tall structures like wind turbine towers that combines viscoelastic dampers with scissor-shaped supports to provide effective vibration damping at different amplitudes and frequencies. The system uses viscoelastic dampers that enhance out-of-plane stiffness installed on the scissor-shaped supports. Multiple parallel dampers are connected through annular connectors. This allows the scissor supports to amplify tower bending deformations into vertical deformations that fully activate the dampers for energy dissipation. The dampers have channel steel stiffeners and extended plates to improve out-of-plane rigidity. The scissor supports also reduce collisions with tower walls by allowing deformation.

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A distributed tower damping control system for multi-rotor wind turbines that reduces costs and improves reliability compared to centralized tower damping systems. The system uses a shared vibration sensor and independent controllers/actuators for each rotor. Vibration data from the shared sensor is scaled based on the rotor's position to determine individual target vibrations. Controllers pitch the rotors to match these targets, eliminating the need for a central unit. This distributed approach avoids extra components and internal cabling.

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Active vibration damping of wind turbines using synchronized control of aerodynamic devices on multiple substructures like blades, tower, and nacelle. The method involves identifying vibration modes using sensors and transforming data to a non-rotating reference frame. Then, aerodynamic devices like flaps or spoilers are activated in phase with the identified mode shapes to dampen the vibrations.

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Method to mitigate blade vibrations and coupled rotor vibrations in wind turbines using pre-tensioned blade connecting wires. The method involves measuring blade parameters like loads, strains, vibrations, accelerations during operation to estimate blade vibrations and rotor vibrations. It then adjusts the pre-tension in the blade connecting wires to counteract the estimated vibrations. This allows the blades to mutually support each other and reduces loads compared to unsupported blades. The pitch angle can also be adjusted to further counteract vibrations. The method balances blade vibration mitigation with pre-tension and pitch adjustment.

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Tower vibration reduction system for wind turbines to mitigate excessive tower vibrations caused by increasing blade lengths and heights. The system uses a passive damping device attached to the tower. The device has a mass block suspended by flexible cables between the tower top and bottom. When the tower vibrates, the mass block moves and the cables generate a restoring force to dampen the vibrations. The device passively resonates with the tower vibrations to absorb and dissipate energy, reducing tower vibrations.

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Active control system to reduce torsional vibrations in wind turbine towers. The system uses sensors to continuously measure tower torsion, and a controller to calculate optimal pitch control signals for the wind turbine blades. By actively adjusting blade pitch, it can counteract tower torsion and dampen vibrations. This allows reducing tower mass and cost compared to passive reinforcement, while addressing resonant frequencies in tall, heavy towers like lattice structures.

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Tuning vibration damping device for wind turbine towers to reduce excessive vibrations that degrade performance and lifespan. The device consists of a tuned mass damping system that can be precisely adjusted to match the natural frequency of the tower. The device transfers vibration energy from the tower to itself, reducing tower vibrations. It attaches to the tower near the nacelle and has a tunable mass and spring system. The device is designed and installed using a method that involves calculating optimal parameters based on tower characteristics.

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A hybrid vibration damping system for wind turbines that improves vibration suppression compared to conventional dampers. The system uses a combination of a first damping unit with a cooling flow passage and a second damping unit. This allows temperature regulation of the first damping unit to prevent weakening of damping force due to heat buildup. A circulation circuit with liquid coolant moves between the dampers. If the first damping unit overheats, the coolant is circulated to cool it. This prevents excessive loading on the second damping unit. The hybrid damping system provides enhanced vibration suppression compared to a single damping unit.

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An omnidirectional control tuned mass damper for wind turbines that improves stability of the tower by providing omnidirectional damping capability to control tower vibrations. The damper has a mass block, elastic members, an eddy current damping device, and a ball device. The mass block attaches to the tower and moves with tower vibrations. The elastic members connect the block to the tower. The ball device allows relative movement between the block and tower. The eddy current damping device provides damping force as the block moves. This omnidirectional damping can control tower vibrations in any direction.

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A compact tuned mass damping inerter for wind turbine towers that can effectively control low-frequency tower vibrations without significantly increasing weight or size. The inerter uses a rack and pinion mechanism with a flywheel, springs, and an eddy current damping device. The flywheel provides adjustable inertia to counter low-frequency tower vibrations. The rack and pinion allows the flywheel to rotate within the tower while the tower structure moves linearly. The springs and dampers control the relative motion between the flywheel and tower. The compact design allows installing the inerter in limited tower spaces.

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Ball screw type tuned mass damping inerter for wind turbine towers that reduces tower vibrations without adding significant weight or volume. The inerter uses a compact ball screw mechanism with a mass block, rigid spring, eddy current damping, and a track. The ball screw allows the mass block to move relative to the tower while generating large inertial forces. An eddy current damper between the mass block and tower provides damping. The compact design allows installing the inerter in limited wind turbine spaces.

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A method and arrangement for controlling a wind turbine during damping mechanical oscillations like tower or drive train vibrations without negatively impacting electrical stability. The method involves using an energy storage device connected between the turbine output and grid. When the turbine damping system generates power variations to mitigate oscillations, the storage device compensates by charging/discharging to remove the oscillations at the turbine output. This prevents oscillations from propagating through the grid. By decoupling damping power variations from the grid, it mitigates issues like grid synchronization or voltage drops causing oscillations.

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A method and arrangement for actively controlling wind turbine oscillations to prevent damage and increase component lifetime. The method involves determining the damping characteristic of specific vibration modes of the wind turbine in real time based on operating conditions. The turbine is then controlled based on these damping values to reduce oscillations and prevent instability. The damping determination uses techniques like system identification and operational modal analysis.

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Adjusting the damping of a flexible tower in a wind turbine using a real-time liquid level control system. The system monitors the tower's vibrations and determines the optimal damping level based on frequency and amplitude. It then adjusts the fluid height in a tuned liquid damping device like a TLD damper to match. This allows dynamic, intelligent damping tailored to actual tower conditions instead of fixed settings.

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Tower stiffness control method for wind turbines to prevent tower resonance and vibrations. The method involves dynamically adjusting the stiffness of the wind turbine tower in real time based on the rotor speed and tower vibrations. This prevents resonance between the tower and wind rotor frequencies. A tower variable stiffness actuator changes the tower rigidity using sensors to avoid tower vibrations exceeding safe limits. By adapting tower stiffness, it reduces transient resonance amplitudes at non-natural frequencies.

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A control system to reduce vibrations of wind turbine towers by actively damping tower oscillations. The system uses a controller that varies the blade pitch angle based on tower acceleration and generator speed. This creates additional thrust in proportion to tower vibration speed, which dampens the tower motion. The controller calculates a reference pitch angle from generator speed and a corrected pitch angle from tower acceleration. The sum of both is integrated to generate the actual pitch angle. This allows adjusting blade pitch in response to tower vibrations to provide damping force and reduce tower oscillations.

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Adding damping to wind turbine blades to reduce vibrations and prevent issues like flutter and blade-tower interference. The device is installed between the main spar and blade shell to increase damping in the swing and bending directions. It absorbs blade vibration energy and dissipates it through restoring forces. Multiple sets of these devices are placed along the blade span to actively dampen vibrations. The device design involves optimizing the mass, elasticity, and restoring force of the device components.

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Vibration control for wind turbines to reduce vibrations and ensure safe operation. The method involves constructing a transfer function with models of tower-blade coupling, transmission coupling, and frequency adaptation. This transfer function is used to control the wind turbine vibrations by amplifying the feedback coefficient, adapting frequencies, and adjusting pitch angles.

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Mitigating wind-induced vibrations of a wind turbine tower using active yaw control of the nacelle. The method involves sensing tower vibrations, providing input to the yaw control system based on the sensed vibrations, and yawing the nacelle in response. This alters the tower's aerodynamics and mass distribution to disrupt vortex-induced vibrations and galloping.

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Vibration damping system for wind turbines using viscoelastic materials to improve fatigue life and reduce maintenance costs. The system involves adding viscoelastic links between structural components of the turbine, like the tower and blades, to damp vibrations. The viscoelastic materials store and convert strain energy into heat, reducing vibration amplitude. The links are chosen based on the temperature range of the turbine area to optimize damping effectiveness.

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Method to dampen vibrations of wind turbine towers and nacelles during construction when the turbine can't be completed. Vibration attenuators are temporarily installed on the nacelle to counteract vibrations caused by eddy currents in the tower due to wind. The attenuators are connected to the nacelle main shaft or transport interface. This allows damping of specific frequencies like the tower's fundamental mode around 0.1 Hz. The attenuators can be passive or adjustable before installation.

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Yawing suppressing apparatus for floating offshore wind turbines that prevents oscillation of the nacelle and floating body caused by gyroscopic effects when waves rock the turbine. The apparatus includes dampers to suppress the natural yawing motion by creating resistance against turning. This prevents gyroscopic forces from causing excessive yawing and oscillation that can reduce power generation efficiency and strain components. The dampers can be hydrodynamic fins or hydraulic/friction devices attached to the tower, along with positioning the nacelle asymmetrically and giving the rotor a coning angle to enhance weathercocking effects. This allows free rotation but controlled suppression of rapid yawing.

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A mass damper module for wind turbines that can be attached to the nacelle during installation and then removed after rotor blades are attached, to mitigate oscillations and make blade installation easier. The module has an active tuned mass damper that can be controlled to damp vibrations when the nacelle is attached to the tower. This prevents swaying of the nacelle during installation that can impede blade attachment. The damper is removable to allow normal turbine operation without the extra weight and complexity.

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Installation structure for a pre-stressed annular tuned mass damper (TMD) on the top section of a wind turbine tower to reduce tower vibrations. The TMD consists of a circular damper housing mounted on the uppermost tower section. It contains a fluid like water that sloshes when the tower vibrates. The housing has an inner wall with multiple annular chambers connected by narrow passages. This annular chamber configuration provides a pre-stressed state to the fluid. The fluid sloshing between chambers generates damping forces that counteract tower vibrations. The pre-stressing of the fluid chambers helps to accurately calculate the damping forces. The TMD is installed at the top of the tower where tower vibrations are highest.

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Wind turbine tower vibration damping damper that provides damping in both vertical and horizontal directions to mitigate tower vibrations. The damper has a strut, frame, lower damping mechanism, upper damping mechanism, wind turbine body, positioning plate, connecting rod, and side pressure plates. The strut connects the frame to the tower. The lower damping mechanism is on the frame bottom. The upper damping mechanism is in the positioning box on the frame top. The wind turbine body attaches to the upper damping mechanism. The positioning plate is on the box bottom. The connecting rod connects the upper damping mechanism to the positioning plate. Side pressure plates are on the connecting rod sides. This configuration allows damping in both vertical and horizontal directions to better mitigate tower vibrations.

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Method for damping edgewise vibrations in rotor blades of wind turbines by measuring blade motion parameters and pitching the blades to counteract vibrations. The method involves individually measuring the edgewise vibration velocity of each blade using sensors on the blades. If the vibration exceeds a threshold, a pitch control signal is generated to pitch the blade in a manner proportional to the vibration velocity. This emulates a viscous damper to counteract the vibration. The blade pitch offset is in addition to normal pitch control.

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Variable stiffness tower for wind turbines that can prevent tower resonance without affecting power generation. The tower has a variable stiffness actuator with a movable part that can change the force applied to the tower walls. Sensors monitor wind wheel speed and tower vibrations. A controller executes a preset stiffness control method to move the actuator and change the tower stiffness. This allows independent adjustment of tower stiffness to prevent resonance without impacting wind turbine operation.

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Impact damper assembly for wind turbine towers that can be adjusted to dampen specific vibration frequencies. The assembly has multiple impact dampers suspended between tower flanges. Each damper has a tensioner to adjust damping characteristics. Sensors measure tower movement and a control unit adjusts damper tension in real time. This allows optimal damping of secondary tower vibrations by matching natural frequencies.

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Wind turbine enclosure with an outer surface designed to suppress vortex-induced vibrations of the tower. The outer surface has alternating convex and concave annular recesses that disrupt the airflow around the enclosure. This prevents the formation of Karman vortex streets that cause vortex-induced vibrations.

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Adaptive suspension liquid mass double tuned damper for offshore wind turbine vibration control that can effectively control the vibration of offshore wind turbines, including adaptive hybrid frequency modulation translational control systems and an adaptive active variable damping torsional vibration control system. The translational control has primary and secondary frequency modulation to cover a wider range of frequencies. The torsional control provides real-time adjustment to match actual torsional vibrations. The dampers use adaptive tuning, liquid suspension, and hybrid frequency modulation to improve vibration control compared to fixed tuned mass dampers.

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