Model-based fault detection of blade pitch system in floating wind turbines

This paper presents a model-based scheme for fault detection of a blade pitch system in floating wind turbines. A blade pitch system is one of the most critical components due to its effect on the operational safety and the dynamics of wind turbines. Faults in this system should be detected at the early stage to prevent failures. To detect faults of blade pitch actuators and sensors, an appropriate observer should be designed to estimate the states of the system. Residuals are generated by a Kalman filter and a threshold based on H optimization, and linear matrix inequality (LMI) is used for residual evaluation. The proposed method is demonstrated in a case study that bias and fixed output in pitch sensors and stuck in pitch actuators. The simulation results show that the proposed method detects different realistic fault scenarios of wind turbines under the stochastic external winds.