Temperature Control in Wind Turbine Systems

A wind power cooling system that efficiently cools wind turbine components without increasing size or cost. The system uses a liquid cooling loop with separate circuits for the heating components and the refrigeration system. This allows optimizing the cooling for each component. The heating circuit has a valve, temperature sensor, and heat exchanger. The refrigeration circuit has an evaporator, compressor, temperature sensor, and valve. This allows using a smaller heat exchanger for the heating components and a separate refrigeration system for higher cooling capacity.

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Thermal management of power cables in wind turbine structures to prevent overheating and damage while maximizing power output. It involves monitoring airflow and temperature around cables in components like towers, nacelles, and converters. By measuring airflow rate and ambient temperature near cables, a threshold current capacity limit is calculated. This limit is used to control power generation equipment to prevent cable overload. The airflow moves along and around the cables to remove heat via conduction through the insulation. It can be established with ducts or natural tower airflow.

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A method for reliably cooling components inside a wind turbine nacelle by adaptively controlling the airflow entering, flowing through, and exiting the nacelle based on the operating conditions of the components. The method involves determining the cooling demand of each component and adjusting the nacelle airflow influencing unit to match. This anticipatory cooling prevents overheating of critical components like bearings by increasing airflow before it becomes necessary. It also considers factors like load, rotation speed, component temperature, and ambient air.

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Nacelle for wind turbines with a cooling system having exterior fins extending from the nacelle surface to dissipate heat from the turbine components. The fins have inlets and outlets connected to a closed loop cooling circuit. The fins are arranged in racks separated by gaps to allow airflow between them. The circuit uses pumps, manifolds, and heat exchangers to distribute coolant. Encasing the fins' pipes and supporting them reduces vibrations. The fins can be meandering pipes with bends to increase surface area for heat transfer.

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Cooling system for wind turbines that provides sufficient heat dissipation for large turbines using phase change refrigeration. The system has a switchable heat exchanger that can be configured for either heat dissipation or refrigeration. It uses a phase change material driven by the turbine shaft motion to absorb or release heat as needed. This allows recycling of the cooling fluid through the system. The adjustable volume section allows flow rate control. The switchable valves route the fluid through internal radiators, external radiators, and the storage container. This provides heat dissipation and refrigeration without additional power inputs.

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Control system for cooling generator set gearbox oil using an internal radiator and fan. The system has an angled internal radiator and fan mounted on the gearbox, and a PLC-based control to manage cooling. The PLC monitors gearbox oil temperature, cabinet temperature, and oil pressure. It uses contactors to selectively activate the internal fan, external fan, and valve between the internal and external radiators based on conditions. This allows optimized cooling during normal operation, but bypasses the internal radiator when needed to prevent high oil temp/pressure issues.

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Operating wind turbines with air cooling during hot climate conditions to improve power output and reduce reliance on expensive reactive power compensation devices. The turbine has an air cooling system that takes in ambient air, cools it, and feeds it to the power conversion system to remove heat. The air cooling is activated when the power conversion temperature, reactive power demand, and active power demand exceed thresholds. This allows higher temperatures without curtailment by cooling the conversion system.

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Heat dissipation device for doubly-fed wind turbine components like generators and gearboxes to improve cooling and prevent overheating. The device uses a refrigeration system with an evaporator attached to the components, a compressor, condenser, expansion valve, and refrigerant. The evaporator has copper tubes interspersed in a heat sink on the component surface. A fan blows air over the evaporator and sink. A preheating system with storage tank, pump, valve, and sensors preheats the components at low temps or stores excess heat.

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An integrated water cooling system for offshore wind turbines that allows adjustable cooling power for different operating conditions. The system has two cooling modes: external circulation and internal circulation. In external circulation, two pipelines form a parallel loop with an external radiator. The pump circulates coolant through both pipes and the external radiator. In internal circulation, the pipelines connect in series and the pump circulates through them. The external radiator is bypassed. This allows flexible cooling based on needs. In harsh environments where air ingress is an issue, the internal loop prevents contamination. For moderate conditions, the external loop provides higher cooling.

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Optimizing thermal management in turbines during shutdown and startup to prevent bowed rotor conditions. The method involves controlling thermal bias between upper and lower turbine sections during non-operating periods. It uses temperature sensors to determine the bias. If bias exceeds limits, it activates cooling like circulating air or spinning the shaft. If bias is low, it disables cooling. This allows starting even when bias is high. The method also has transitions between enabled and disabled cooling states.

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Optimizing cooling of wind turbine components like generators and converters to improve efficiency and output power. The method involves dynamically controlling the cooling based on factors like wind speed, power generation, and component temperature. The cooling is turned off when the component is already cold, but turned on for rated operation, reduced power, predicted wind speed reductions, and power reductions. The cooling power consumption is also modeled to optimize overall annual power generation.

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Cooling system for wind turbines that uses forced air cooling to improve stability and safety. Multiple cooling fans work together inside the turbine to actively cool it instead of relying on natural ventilation. The fans, radiator, and main fan are controlled by a central controller that adjusts power based on turbine temperature. This automated dynamic cooling improves operation stability and reduces high temperatures compared to natural ventilation. It also saves power consumption by optimizing fan output for different temperatures.

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Cooling control method for wind turbine generators that balances cooling efficiency with power generation. The method involves using some of the generator's electrical output to power the cooling system instead of relying solely on external sources. This allows smoother transitions between full and part load conditions by adjusting the cooling power instead of abruptly stopping external cooling. The method also provides a system with an output power module and consumption power controller.

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Liquid-phase cooling system for wind turbine components like gearboxes and generators to prevent overheating and component damage. The cooling system uses a liquid coolant circulated through heat exchangers to dissipate excess heat from the components. Instead of relying solely on air cooling, which can clog filters and reduce effectiveness, the liquid cooling provides a more reliable and efficient heat removal method. The system has a liquid cooling cavity with sensors, cooling plates, fans, and temperature switches. A control module monitors temperatures and activates the liquid cooling when necessary. This allows proactive cooling instead of relying on air cooling alone, which can become insufficient. The liquid cooling provides consistent and effective heat dissipation for critical wind turbine components.

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Cooling method for electric machines like generators in wind turbines to improve cooling efficiency. The method involves alternating the flow direction of the cooling fluid through the air gap between the rotor and stator. Initially, fluid is supplied from inlets to cool the elements. Then, the flow direction is reversed to bleed the warmer fluid out. This changes the heat distribution within the gap as elements cooled least first time now cool more, while cooled most cool less. Reversing flow alternates hot and cold spots.

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Cooling system for wind power generators that improves reliability and efficiency by allowing multiple sub-cooling loops to share pumps and pipes. The system has multiple sub-cooling systems connected in groups. Each sub-cooling system has an inlet and outlet valve. When power is high or temps are high, each sub-cooling system operates independently. But when power is low or temps are low, the valves between sub-cooling systems are connected to run through two parallel loops, sharing the pumps. This allows some sub-cooling systems to be shut off while others use the shared pumps, reducing pump self-consumption. If a pump fails in one sub-cooling system, the valves between sub-cooling systems are connected to share the other pump. This prevents full shutdown from pump failure.

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Cooling system for wind turbine generators that enables centralized fault tolerance and energy efficiency improvements. The system has two interconnected cooling subsystems, one for the bearings/stepping mechanism and one for the nacelle/cabinet/converter/transformer components. This allows optimized cooling circuit shapes for each component arrangement. By thermally coupling the subsystems, it provides fault tolerance across components since if one subsystem fails, the other can compensate. This improves system reliability compared to separate subsystems.

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Controlling wind turbine operation to limit component temperatures without reducing power output. When component temperatures rise, the turbine increases rotor speed without increasing power output. This reduces generator torque and current, lowering component heat. It's done using a feedback loop based on component temperatures. By avoiding reducing power output, turbine efficiency is maintained while limiting component heat.

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Selective cooling system for wind turbine components using branch lines with independent pumps to cool components without recirculation or complex valves. The wind turbine cooling system has a main fluid circuit with a pump to circulate working fluid between components. Each component has a branch line with an inlet from the main circuit, an outlet back to the main circuit, and a branch pump. The branch pumps draw fluid from the component and through a cooling device before returning it to the main circuit. A flow director prevents recirculation when a branch pump is idle. This allows independent selective cooling of components without valves or high pressure circuits.

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A thermal assembly for wind turbines that allows them to operate in off-grid conditions without damaging components due to condensation. The assembly has a liquid-air heat exchanger to cool the turbine components during normal operation. When the turbine goes off-grid, a control excludes the heat exchanger and lets the coolant temperature rise. This stores thermal energy from the components. In a first off-grid mode, the turbine generates power. In a second off-grid mode, the stored heat is discharged inside the nacelle to avoid condensation. This prevents corrosion and damage when the turbine isn't producing power.

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