JP2013227866A - Wind power generation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve efficiency of manufacturing wind turbine equipment and efficiency of wind turbine construction.SOLUTION: A wind power generation system includes: a tower 6; a nacelle 5 rotatably supported relative to the tower 6; a rotor supported by the nacelle 5 and rotated by receiving a wind; a power generator 4 for generating electric power by the rotation of the rotor; and an actuator disposed between the tower 6 and the nacelle 5 and generating operation force for the rotation of the nacelle 5 relative to the tower 6. The actuator includes: a stator 9 arranged on a circumference relative to the tower 6 at the side of the tower 6; and a rotor 8 disposed opposite the stator 9 at the side of the nacelle 5. The stator 9 or the rotor 8 is divided in a circumferential direction.

Description

  The present invention relates to a wind power generation system, and more particularly to a device that prevents an increase in the size of a yaw drive actuator.

  The horizontal axis type wind power generation facility (wind turbine) rotates the nacelle and the rotor around the vertical axis of the tower in accordance with the wind direction in order to maximize the power generation output. The rotation of the rotor shaft about the vertical axis is called yawing. In order to perform the yaw motion, an “active yaw” that drives the yaw with the power of a motor installed in the lower part of the nacelle is used in a large windmill.

  A yaw drive device that performs active yaw requires excessive torque to hold a rotor and rotate a nacelle on which a speed increaser and a generator are mounted. For this reason, as a yaw driving device, a mechanism using a rack and a pinion gear and a motor for driving the gear are used. When the motor is electric, a gear motor incorporating a reduction gear is used to obtain a high torque.

  Here, an example using an electric motor instead of the gear motor is described in the patent literature. In this patent document, a “ring-shaped rotor that rotates around the rotation center axis of the yaw” provided on the nacelle side for yaw driving, and a “ring-shaped stator that faces the rotor” provided on the tower side. Is described. In this patent document, a gap (gap) is secured between the rotor and the stator, and an electric motor is constituted by the rotor and the stator to generate torque for yaw driving.

JP 2004-301031 A

  With the recent increase in wind turbine size, the diameter of the yaw bearing installed at the top of the tower has also increased. In this case, according to the technology of the patent document, an increase in the size of the ring-shaped rotor or the ring-shaped stator cannot be avoided, and it becomes difficult to manufacture the rotary actuator and to construct the wind turbine. Manufacturing efficiency and wind turbine construction efficiency may decrease.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the manufacturing efficiency of wind turbine equipment and the efficiency of wind turbine construction.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the wind power generation system according to the present invention, a tower, a nacelle that is rotatably supported with respect to the tower, a rotor that is supported by the nacelle and rotates by receiving wind, A generator that generates electric power as the rotor rotates, and an actuator that is disposed between the tower and the nacelle and generates an operation force for the nacelle to rotate with respect to the tower. Is provided on the tower side with a stator disposed on the periphery of the tower, and on the nacelle side with a rotor disposed to face the stator, and the stator or the The rotor is divided in the circumferential direction.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the manufacturing efficiency of wind turbine equipment and the efficiency of wind turbine construction.

It is a side view in the nacelle vicinity of the wind power generation system which concerns on Example 1. FIG. It is a figure which expands and shows the connection of the tower and nacelle in Example 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the actuator in the first embodiment. It is a figure explaining the torque which arises by a wind direction deviation with the upwind rotor in Example 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the torque which arises by a wind direction deviation with the downwind rotor in Example 2. FIG.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following are only examples, and the contents of the invention are not intended to be limited to the embodiments of the following examples. The invention itself can be modified into various modes based on the content described in the claims.

  A first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, in the wind power generation system according to the present embodiment, a rotor is composed of a blade 1 that receives wind and a hub 2 that supports the blade, and is connected to the rotor via a shaft by the rotation of the rotor. The speed increaser 3 and the generator 4 rotate. That is, the rotor (not shown) of the generator 4 can be rotated by rotating the rotor, and a power generation operation can be performed.

  The nacelle 5 that supports the rotor and accommodates the speed increaser 3, the generator 4, and a control device (not shown) is rotatably supported by the tower 6. A bearing 7 is provided between the nacelle 5 and the tower 6, and the nacelle 5 can be yaw-driven around the tower 6. Furthermore, the wind power generation system according to the present embodiment includes a rotor 8 fixed to the tower 6 as a yaw driving device, and a stator 9 connected to the nacelle 5, and these serve as actuators for yaw driving. . In FIG. 1, an arrow 10 indicates the direction of the wind.

  FIG. 2 is an enlarged schematic view of the cross section of the yaw drive unit. The bearing 7 is mainly composed of an outer ring 71, an inner ring 72, and rolling elements 73, and a load acting on the outer ring 71 and the inner ring 72 is supported via the rolling elements 73. This allows only one rotation relative to the other. In this embodiment, the outer ring 71 is attached to the upper part of the tower 6, and the inner ring 72 is attached to the lower part of the nacelle 5. In the yaw driving device, the rotor 8 is fixed to the tower 6 as described above. On the other hand, the stator 9 includes a support member 91 connected to the nacelle 5, an iron core 92, and a winding 93 wound around the iron core 92.

  Next, the rotor 8 and the stator 9 which are yaw drive devices in the present embodiment will be described.

  As described above, the winding 93 is wound around the iron core 92 in FIG. In this embodiment, a portion having a winding for supplying electric energy is a stator, and a portion having no winding is a rotor. In order to use the rotor 8 and the stator 9 as an electric motor, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of coils in the circumferential direction and to connect windings between the coils according to the number of phases. If the stator 9 is ring-shaped, the stator 9 has a diameter equivalent to the diameter of the upper part of the tower, so that the apparatus required for the manufacturing process for winding the winding 93 is also increased in size.

In the windmill described in the patent document described in the related art, a rotary actuator is used as a torque generation source for causing yaw motion. The rotary actuator is a linear actuator that is curved in an arc shape, and uses electromagnetic force to generate thrust. In general, an electromagnetic linear actuator is known to have a low thrust density in principle.
For this reason, in order to obtain the thrust required for the yaw movement, it is necessary to enlarge the area where the rotor 8 and the stator 9 face each other, and there is a problem that the yaw driving device is enlarged. On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, since the stator 9 is divided, the outer dimensions are not increased, and the apparatus necessary for the manufacturing process for winding the winding 93 is simplified.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA shown in FIG. A ring-shaped rotor 8 is installed outside the bearing inner ring 72 and the bearing outer ring 71. Furthermore, the stator 9 divided into eight parts is arranged outside the rotor 8.
The wind power generation system configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. 4 when the wind blows at an angle deviated from the blade front (when there is a wind direction deviation).

  The majority of large horizontal axis wind turbines currently in commercial use are upwind rotors. FIG. 4 shows the torque generated on the yaw of the windmill when the windmill front direction does not coincide with the wind direction and a wind direction deviation of a predetermined angle occurs in the upwind rotor. The upwind rotor has a rotor rotation surface on the windward side.

  Here, for simplicity of explanation, it is assumed that the wind 10 generates forces fa and fb on the two blades 1a and 1b, respectively, and torque is generated. The yaw motion of the windmill rotates around a point c at the center of the cross section of the tower 6. Considering the tangential component of the circle centered on the point c for the forces fa and fb, the blade 1b side is fb '. Therefore, the magnitude of the force becomes fa> fb ′, and a torque for rotating the yaw in the counterclockwise direction on the paper surface of FIG. 4 is generated. That is, a rotational moment is generated in the direction of increasing the wind direction deviation. In other words, when an upwind rotor is used, when the windmill front is deviated from the wind direction and a wind direction deviation exists, a rotational moment is generated in a direction in which the deviation is increased.

  Here, the wind power generation system needs to perform yaw control so that wind can be received from the front, that is, the wind direction deviation is zero. That is, when using an upwind rotor, the yaw drive device needs to generate a torque that exceeds the moment generated by the wind. Therefore, in order to obtain the thrust necessary for the yaw motion, it is necessary to enlarge the area where the rotor 8 and the stator 9 face each other, and the yaw driving device is increased in size. In particular, for an actuator that generates an operation force by an electromagnetic force, an increase in size for obtaining a thrust necessary for a yaw motion is remarkable. However, in this embodiment, it is possible to prevent the apparatus from becoming large by dividing the stator. Thereby, it becomes possible to improve manufacturing efficiency.

  Although the stator is divided in this embodiment, the rotor may be divided instead of the stator. In any case, by dividing one of the rotor and the stator, the coil does not increase in size, and it becomes possible to easily manufacture a yaw driving device such as coil wiring processing.

  Next, yaw driving in the case of using a downwind rotor will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, a windmill of a downwind rotor is used, and during the power generation operation, the rotor that rotates by receiving wind is arranged on the leeward side. Other configurations and effects excluding the part related to this point are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a duplicate description is omitted here. Needless to say, any content described in the first embodiment can be applied in combination with the second embodiment.

  In the downwind rotor, when the windmill front face deviates from the windward direction and has a wind direction deviation, a rotational moment is generated in a direction to reduce the deviation. FIG. 5 shows the torque generated in the yaw of the wind turbine when the wind turbine front direction does not coincide with the wind direction and a wind direction deviation of a predetermined angle occurs in the downwind rotor. Here, as in the first embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that the wind 10 generates forces fa and fb on the two blades 1a and 1b, respectively, thereby generating torque. The windmill yaw drive rotates around a point c at the center of the cross section of the tower 6. Considering the tangential component of the circle centered on the point c for the forces fa and fb, the blade 1a side is fa '. Therefore, in this case, the magnitude of the force is fa ′ <fb, and a torque that rotates the yaw in the clockwise direction as viewed on the paper surface of FIG. 5 is generated, and a rotational moment is generated in a direction that reduces the wind direction deviation.

  That is, when the downwind rotor is used, the yaw driving device that controls the wind direction deviation to zero can use the moment generated by the wind. It is possible to drive with a much smaller torque than the upwind rotor. As a result, the outer dimensions of the yaw driving device can be further reduced, and the manufacturing efficiency can be further improved.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Blade 2 Hub 3 Speed increaser 4 Generator 5 Nacelle 6 Tower 7 Bearing 8 Rotor 9 Stator 10 Wind direction 71 Outer ring 72 Inner ring 73 Rolling body 91 Support member 92 Iron core 93 Winding

Claims (4)

A tower, a nacelle rotatably supported with respect to the tower, a rotor that is supported by the nacelle and rotates by receiving wind, and a generator that generates electric power as the rotor rotates,
An actuator that is disposed between the tower and the nacelle and generates an operating force for the nacelle to rotate with respect to the tower;
The actuator includes, on the tower side, a stator disposed on the periphery of the tower;
On the nacelle side, a rotor arranged to face the stator is provided,
The wind power generation system, wherein the stator or the rotor is divided in a circumferential direction. The wind power generation system according to claim 1,
The said actuator is an actuator which generate | occur | produces operation force by electromagnetic force, The wind power generation system characterized by the above-mentioned. The wind power generation system according to claim 1 or 2,
The wind power generation system according to claim 1, wherein the stator is disposed on a radially outer side of the rotor. The wind power generation system according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The said rotor is a downwind rotor in which the said rotor is located in a leeward at the time of the electric power generation driving | operation of the said generator, The wind power generation system characterized by the above-mentioned.