MXPA06006454A - Wind turbine to produce electricity - Google Patents

Abstract

A wind turbine has a hub mounted on a rotatable shaft with a ring concentrically mounted on the shaft. The ring is connected to drive wheels, which in turn drive generators to produce electricity. A controller is connected to control the speed of the turbine by controlling the number and force of contact between the wheels and the ring and also controlling other components such as the pitch, yaw and brakes for the turbine while monitoring the wind conditions.

Description

EOLIC TURBINE TO PRODUCE ELECTRICITY FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a wind turbine that produces energy and, more particularly, to a wind turbine having a bushing mounted on a rotatable shaft and a ring mounted concentrically on the shaft, the ring drives equipment producer of energy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wind turbines, including windmills, have been known for a long time and have been used to drive energy production equipment, among which are included: generators, compressors or pumps, as well as other devices. It is known that the wind turbine must be connected to an axis and that the rotating energy of the turbine can then be used to drive energy producing equipment. Windmills or wind turbines have a gear box to transfer the energy from the blades, passing through the shaft, to the energy producing equipment. The use of wind turbines for the production of electrical energy is known, however, great difficulties have been encountered in producing electricity of 60 cycles when using wind turbines. Without electricity of 60 cycles, the output current of the previous wind turbines can not be introduced into the distribution network of any lighting company without being energized by the network. The difficulty to produce electricity of 60 cycles is due to the fact that the wind speed changes constantly and, therefore, there are variations in the speed of rotation of the blades of the wind turbine. On the other hand, the wind turbine can not produce electrical energy in the periods when the wind does not blow or is not blowing with sufficient speed for the wind turbine to work. The windmills of the prior art also have important limitations in terms of power, due mainly to the gearbox. The previous wind turbines have an installed power that does not exceed 3.5 M.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a wind turbine that can be controlled to operate the power producing equipment at a constant speed. A further object of the present invention is to provide a wind turbine in which the output has a constant speed, even when the turbine blades rotate at variable speeds. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wind turbine that can be controlled to drive the energy producing equipment at a virtually constant speed and produce energy economically. A turbine driven by the wind contains a rotor on an axis. The rotor has blades that extend outwards, the blades are shaped to rotate the shaft when the wind is strong enough. The shaft is supported so that it can rotate on a support that can move the blades in a yaw movement towards the wind and away from it, as the wind changes the direction. The turbine has a calender adjustment mechanism. The shaft has a ring mounted concentrically. There is a plurality of rotators mounted so that they contact, removably, with the ring. The rotators are connected to drive the energy producing team. The rotators are built to rotate with the ring when they are in contact with the ring, thus driving the energy producing team when the wind rotates the blades. A controller is connected to control the speed of the turbine when the wind is strong enough and to independently control the contact between each rotator and the ring. Preferably, the rotor has a bushing placed between the shaft and the blades. Additionally, each of the blades preferably has a post extending out from the hub and a blade-shaped portion mounted on an external portion of the post.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a front view of a wind turbine. Figure 2 is a side view of a wind turbine. Figure 3 is an enlarged side view of an axis and a ring. Figure 4 is a front view of a generator arrangement. Figure 5 is an enlarged side view of a ring. Figure 6 is a perspective view of a part of a ring. Figure 7 is a side view of a part of a ring. Figure 8 is a partial perspective view of two spokes connected to the shaft. Figure 9 is a side view of the shaft that at one end has grooves. Figure 10 is an end view of an axle having grooves about a circumference.

Figure 11 is a perspective view of a generator and a tire unit. Figure 12 is a schematic view of a tire unit and the hydraulic control mechanism. Figure 13 is an enlarged schematic view of one side of a hydraulic control mechanism. Figure 14 is a perspective view of a generator base. Figure 15 is a perspective view of a generator base and tire mounting unit. Figure 16 is an end view of a section of the blade. Figure 17 is a sectional view of an arrangement of the caging mechanism of each blade. Figure 18 is a front view of the hub. Figure 19 is a side view of the bushing. Figure 20 is a schematic side view of a brake system. Figure 21 is a perspective view of the jaws of a brake system. Figure 22 is a perspective view of the jaws and a disc brake. Figure 23 is a front view of a second mode of a wind turbine. Figure 24 is a perspective view of a vane of the second embodiment. Figure 25 is a perspective view of a hub-blade connector of the second embodiment. Figure 26 is a perspective view of the connector of Figure 25. Figure 27 is a perspective view of a collar. Figure 28 is a partial perspective view of the hub-blade connection of the second embodiment. Figure 29 is a side view of a caging mechanism of the second embodiment. Figure 30 is a side view of the first section of a tower. Figure 31 is a side view of the second section of a tower. Figure 32 is a side view of the third section of a tower. Figure 33 is a perspective view of the foundation of a tower. Figure 34 is a top view of the foundation. Figure 35 is a sectional view of the foundation along section A-A of Figure 34. Figure 36 is a further embodiment of a wind turbine in which the gears are in contact with the ring. Figure 37 is a sectional view of a gear arrangement along section A-A of Figure 36. Figure 38 is a side view of the gears along section B-B of Figure 36.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Figures 1 and 2 show a wind turbine 2 having three blades 4 mounted equidistantly to each other in the bushing 6. The bushing 6 is connected to a rotating shaft 8 extending into the housing 10 of the generator. The housing 10 is mounted on a turntable 12, which itself is mounted on a tower 14 having a foundation 16. Thanks to the dashed line of Figure 2, it can be seen that the blades can be inclined forward 4o the upper part and 4o backwards in the lower part. The inclination of the blades is adjusted by installing another different bushing. In Figure 3 an enlarged side view of the housing 10 of the generator is shown. It can be seen that the shaft 8 is mounted, so that it can rotate inside the housing 10, in a front bearing 18 and in a rear bearing 20. The housing contains a support structure of the generator unit (not shown in Figure 3). ). A ring 26 is concentrically mounted on the shaft 8 with the hub 6 (not shown in Figure 3), the ring has a contact surface 28 that is substantially parallel to the axis 8. The housing 10 has electric drive motors 30 in each side of the front part of the housing (only one of these motors is shown), which are connected with a gear reducer 32, a pinion shaft 34, a pinion 36 and a ball bearing 38 to make the housing 10 of the generator rotate in a yaw motion. Obviously, when the generator housing rotates, the shaft and the blades rotate, simultaneously, in a yaw movement. In Figure 4 a front view of the housing 10 of the generator is shown. It can be seen that the generators 40 have tires 42 that are connected to drive the generators. The generators are mounted on a support structure 22 which on the support plates 24 has a circular arrangement in correspondence with the ring 26 (not shown in Figure 4). The tires are mounted so that they can move, removably, to make contact and to stop making contact with the contact surface 28 of the ring 26. The tires can be controlled independently, so that the strength of each tire on the contact surface can be controlled, as well as the movement of each tire to make contact and stop contacting the ring 26. In Figure 5 an enlarged side view of the ring 26 is shown together with the contact surface 28. The ring 26 has spokes 44 (of which only one is shown) and an arm 52 extending from each ray 4. Figure 6 shows a perspective view of a part of the ring 26 and the beam 44. The ring 26 has an external surface 46 in which there are ribs 48. An angled bracket 50 connects the ring 26 with the spoke 44.

There is a plurality of spokes 44 (of which only one is shown) extending outward from the axis 8 (not shown in Figure 6). In each ray 44 there is an angled bracket 50 connecting the ring 26 with the spoke 44. In Figures 5 and 6 the same reference numerals as used in Figure 3 were used for identical components. In Figure 7 a side view of the connection between the ring 26 and the beam 44 is shown. In Figure 7 the same reference numerals as used in Figure 6 were used to describe identical components. An arm 52 extends at a certain angle to give resistance to the beam 44 (see also Figure 5). Figure 8 shows a perspective view of the beam 44 connected to a sleeve 54 that is concentrically mounted on the axis 8. In Figure 8 the same reference numbers were used to describe components identical to the components of Figures 6 and 7. It can be seen that the sleeve 54 is shaped to receive the grooves 56, which are located equidistantly with one another around the circumference of the axis 8. In FIG. 9 a side view of the axis 8 is shown together with the grooves 56 in FIG. one end of the axle 8. In Figure 10 there is shown an end view of the axle 8, showing the grooves 56. In Figure 11 a perspective view of an assembly 58 for the tire unit having a hydraulic cylinder is shown. 60 connected between the assembly 58 for the tire unit and an E-shaped bracket 62. The hydraulic cylinder 60 is controlled by a hydraulic control mechanism 64. The E-shaped bracket 62 has bearings 66. The tires 42 are connected so as to rotate the shaft 70, which in turn is connected to a first cardan joint 72 and with a second cardan joint 74 for rotating a multiplier gear 76. In turn, the multiplier gear 76 is connected in such a way as to drive a generator 78 and, in this way, produce electricity. 52-36 A schematic side view of a portion of the hydraulic cylinder 60, the control mechanism 64 and the E-shaped bracket 62 are shown in Figure 12. In Figure 12 the same reference numbers as those used were used. in Figure 11 for identical components. It can be seen that the hydraulic cylinder 60 is mounted so as to move the tires 42 to contact and stop contacting the ring 26 (not shown in Figure 12). The control mechanism 64 has two hydraulic cylinders 80 located on each side of a serrated connecting rod 82 with saw teeth. When the two hydraulic cylinders 80 are in the extended position shown in Figure 12, the tires can no longer move away from the ring 26 (not shown in Figure 12). In other words, when the tires are pushed against the ring 26 and the hydraulic cylinders 80 of the control mechanism 64 are extended, the tires will be immobilized in that position since the ends 84 of the hydraulic cylinders 80 will be coupled with the saw teeth 86 of the connecting rod 82. Figure 13 shows an enlarged side view of one of the hydraulic cylinders 80, which contain a piston 88. A hydraulic line 89 drives a hydraulic fluid towards the hydraulic cylinder 80 to 52-368 push out the piston, thus extending the steel lock 84. When the hydraulic fluid stops exerting pressure, the springs 90 return the piston to its non-extended position and the steel lock 84 is removed from the saw teeth 86 of the connecting rod 82 (not shown in Figure 13). From Figures 12 and 13 it can be seen that one part of the saw teeth has an angled surface and the other part of the saw teeth has a perpendicular surface. The steel latch 84 has a similar shape, so that the hydraulic cylinder 60 can push the tires 42 against the ring 26 even more easily (not shown in FIGS. 12 and 13), however, the tires will not easily move away from the ring 26 in the direction of the cylinder 60. A base 92 for the generator and the assembly 58 for the tire unit are shown in Figures 14 and 15. When comparing Figures 14 and 15 with Figure 11 it can be seen that the base 92 of the generator supports the generator 78 and the multiplier gear 76. A column 94 supports the base 92 of the generator. The length of the columns 94 can be variable, depending on the desired height of the base 92 of the generator. In Figure 4 it can be seen that the generators are supported in columns of variable height in the lower portion of the 52-368 generator housing 10. The generators of the upper portion of the housing 10 are supported on support plates 24. A section of a blade 4 is shown in Figure 16. Preferably, the blades are made of carbon fiber combined with fiberglass and epoxy resin. Preferably, the outer layers are made of a laminated fiber material and the much thicker inner layer is made of a lighter support material. As shown in Figure 17, the blade 4 has a shoulder 102, held at the inner end thereof. The shoulder 102 is screwed to a capping mechanism 104. The capping mechanism 104 has a camshaft bearing 106 and a camber gear 108 which interacts with a camber pinion 110. The camber pinion is controlled by an electric motor 112 which it has a gear reducer 114 which rotates the calender pinion 110. While the calender pinion rotates, the cage of the blade 4 can be varied. The electric motor 112 and the gear reducer 114 are screwed to the capping mechanism 104. In the Figures 18 and 19 show, respectively, the front and side views of the hub 6. The front of the hub 6 is connected to the axle 8. The three sides of the hub 6 (of which only one is shown) are connected to the mechanism of calaje 104 (not shown in 52-368 Figures 18 and 19) of each blade, which in turn connects with the connectors 98 and with the blades 4. In Figures 20, 21 and 22 a braking system of the wind turbine is shown. In Figure 20 it can be seen that the axle 8 has a brake disc 116 located between the front bearing 18 and the rear bearing 20. In FIG. 21, the brake jaws 118 having two brake shoes 120 are shown. Brake shoes are located on one side of the brake disc 116 and the other, on the other side of the brake disc 116. The brakes are hydraulically actuated by means of hydraulic cylinders 122 which are connected with hydraulic supply lines 124. In Figure 22 shows a schematic perspective view of several brake jaws 118 that are mounted around the circumference of the disc brake 116. The jaws and disc brake are conventional and their description will not be expanded further herein. In Figures 23, 24 and 25 there is shown an additional embodiment of a turbine 126 having three blades 128, which are different from the blades 4, as can be seen in Figure 23, the blades 128 have an external blade section 130. and an inner post section 132. The other components shown in Figure 23 are identical to the components shown in Figure 1 and in their 52-368 description the same reference numbers are used. In Figure 24 there is shown a perspective view of a blade 128 having a blade section 130 and a pole section 132. Blades 128 are longer than blades 4 and trap the wind in a larger circumference. In Figure 25 it can be seen that the post section 132 is an enlarged connection of the hub with the blade, which at the inner end has an external shoulder 134 and at the outer end has a collar 136. The outer blade section 130 of the blade 128 is screwed into the outer end of the pole section 132. In Figures 26, 27 and 28, other views of the blade connection with the shoulder shown in Figure 25 are shown. In Figures 26, 27 and 28 were used the same reference numbers as those used in Figure 25 to describe identical components. The outer end of the pole section 132 has a series of openings 138 that are in correspondence with the openings 140 of the collar 136. The outer end of the pole section 132 is designed to receive the outer blade portion 130 of the blade 138. As best seen in Figures 25 and 28, the outer blade portion 130 of the blade 128 is screwed into the inner post of the section 132. In Figure 29 a caging mechanism 142 is shown which varies little with respect to the mechanism of calaje 104 to admit different blades 128. 52-368 In Figure 29 the same reference numbers as those used in Figures 17 and 25 to 28 were used to describe identical components. The inner pole section 130 of the blade 128 has a shoulder 134. In Figures 30 to 35 the components of the tower 14 are shown. The tower has an upper section 144, as shown in Figure 30, an intermediate section 146, as shown in Figure 31, and a lower section 148, as shown in Figure 32. The lower section 150 is mounted on the base 152 of the foundation 16, as shown in Figures 33 to 35. In the Figures 36 to 38 another embodiment of the ring 26 is shown. Instead of the contact being made with the tires, as described so far, on the periphery of a plate 158 a ring 156 is located. The ring 156 is the periphery of the plate 158 and has ridges and indentations (not shown) to engage the gears 160. The gears 160 take the place of the tires 42. The gears 160 are connected by an axle 162 to engage with the gears 164 and these, a turn, they are coupled with the gears 166. Each u not of the gears 166 is connected with an axis 168 having a flexible coupling 170, a rotor brake 172 and a variable speed coupler 174 for driving a generator 78. The plate 158 rotates on the shaft 8 as shown in FIG. Figure 37 52-368 Instead of the flanges, indentations and gears, the mode shown in Figures 36 to 38 may have metal wheels instead of flanges, indentations and gears. The metal wheels would be in frictional contact with each other. For example, plate 158 would be a large wheel that would cause smaller wheels 160 to rotate.

CONTROLS: Starting the turbine: 1. Energize the caging actuator. 2. Remove the axle brake. 3. Increase the demand of the calaje position to a fixed rate until reaching a certain initial calaje. 4. Wait until the rotor speed exceeds 12 rpm. 5. Operate the closed loop control of the caging speed. 6. Increase the demand for speed up to synchronous speed. 7. Wait until the speed is near, for a specified time, the desired speed. 8. Attach the tire mechanism (or the load generator if the "gears" of the second option are used), close the generator contactors. 52-368 9. Operate the closed-loop power control of the energy by controlling the load and the load on the tire mechanism. 10. Increase the power demand up to the rated power.

Hatch control: A closed loop controller (software based) will be used that will automatically adjust the turbine's operating status in order to maintain it in a predefined operating curve, which will include: 1. Control the blade calender to admit the free-flowing wind speed that offers the optimum cage angle to supply the optimum power. 2. Check the blade caging in order to regulate the output power of the turbine at the nominal level for the wind speed classified above. 3. Check the blade caging in order to follow a predetermined speed ramp during the start or stop of the turbine. 4. Control the load of the generators using the tire mechanism (or control the generator load when using the "gears" of the second option), providing a means to increase or decrease the power generated that supports the speed 52-368 wind variable. 5. Control the yaw motor in order to minimize the yaw tracking error.

Security system: The security system will be constituted by a fail-safe wired circuit that links several normally open relay contacts that remain closed when the turbine is operating normally. So, if one of these contacts comes to open, the security system is triggered, causing security actions to fail. These would include disconnecting all electrical systems from the power supply, allowing the fail-safe cabling to move to the boom position and allow the hydraulic operation shaft brake (or the tire shaft brake) to come into operation ). The safety system would trigger in the event of any of the following: 1. The rotor reaches an excessive speed, reaching the limit of mechanical overspeed. Which is set at a level higher than the software overspeed limit, which would cause the normal monitoring controller to start a stoppage. 52-368 2. Trip of the vibration detector, which could indicate that an important structural failure has occurred, which will use the detectors in the tower, blades, hub, shaft, friction wheel and foundation. 3. Once the controller's watchdog timer has expired, the controller must have a watchdog timer that resets each controller's time stage. In case it is not reset during this time, it will be indicative that the controller has faults and the safety system must stop the turbine. 4. Some operator pressed the emergency stop button. 5. Other faults that indicate that the main controller may not control the turbine.

Torque control of the generator: 1. First option (turbine with friction wheel): If 20 induction generators with a rated power of 375 KW are used, the control of the torque in the generators would be carried out by: Controlling the current field to admit the power supplied to the generators by the tire mechanism. 52-368 Control the pressure applied to the tire mechanism by controlling the force applied to each tire to transmit the necessary power. Control the loading and unloading of the generators in the friction wheel, when coupling and uncoupling the tires and generators. 2. Second option (wind turbine with gears): If 8 induction generators are used, each with a nominal power of 975 KW, the control of the torque in the generators would be carried out when: Control the field current to admit the supplied power to generators by the tire mechanism. Use the fluid coupling to provide the power control necessary to admit the power supplied to the generator. Load and unload the generators.

Yaw control: To calculate the demand signal from the yaw actuator, a yaw error signal from the vane mounted on the nacelle is used. When the average yaw error exceeds true When the value is set, the electric motor will turn on, allowing yaw at a fixed slow speed in one or the other direction and, again, shutting down after a certain time or when the car has traveled a certain angle.

Claims (15)

1. CLAIMS: 1. A turbine driven by the wind, which contains a rotor on an axis, the rotor has blades that extend outwards, the blades are shaped to rotate the shaft when the wind speed exceeds a minimum speed default; the shaft is supported so that it can rotate on a support that moves the blades in a yaw movement in the direction of the wind and out of this direction as the wind changes direction; the turbine has a calender adjustment mechanism to change the blades' caulking; the shaft has a ring concentrically mounted, the ring is offset from the blades longitudinally along the axis, - a plurality of rotators are mounted to make contact, removably, with the ring, the rotators are connected so that drive energy producing equipment, the rotators are built to rotate with the ring when they are in contact with the ring, thus driving the energy producing team when the wind rotates the blades; A controller connected to control the speed of the turbine when the wind speed exceeds a predetermined minimum speed and to independently control each contact between the rotators and the ring.
2. 2. A turbine according to claim 1, wherein 52-368 the rotor has a bushing located between the shaft and the blades.
3. A turbine according to claim 2, wherein each blade has a post extending out of the hub together with a blade-shaped portion mounted on the external portion of the post.
4. A turbine according to claim 1, wherein the ring has a plurality of rays extending outwardly from the central portion thereof for the purpose of supporting the ring.
5. 5. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein in the turbine there are three blades mounted equidistantly with each other.
6. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the ring has a surface extending parallel to the surface of the shaft and the rotators are the tires.
7. 7. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the rotators are any of those selected from the group consisting of tires, metal wheels and gears.
8. A turbine according to any one of claims 1, 2 or 3, wherein the ring is a gear located on the periphery of a plate that is concentrically mounted on the shaft and the rotators are gears that mesh with the plate.
9. 9. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the ring is made of metal and the rotators are metallic wheels.
10. A turbine according to any one of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the controller is connected to the turbine control brakes.
11. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the ring has a diameter significantly smaller than the circumference passing through the tips of the vanes.
12. 12. A turbine according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4, wherein the ring is mounted on the shaft and spaced from the blades.
13. 13. A method for operating a turbine driven by the wind, the turbine has a rotor on one axis, the rotor has blades that extend outward, the blades are shaped to rotate the shaft when the wind speed exceed a predetermined minimum speed; the shaft is supported so that it can rotate on a support that moves the blades in a yaw movement in the direction of the wind and out of this direction as the wind changes direction; the turbine has a calender adjustment mechanism; the shaft has a ring concentrically mounted, the ring is offset from the blades longitudinally along the axis; a 52-368 plurality of rotators are mounted to make contact, removably, with the ring, the rotators are connected so as to drive the energy producing equipment, the rotators are constructed to rotate with the ring when they are in contact with the rotator. the ring, thus driving the energy producing team when the wind spins the blades; a controller connected to control the rotation speed of the turbine when the wind speed exceeds a predetermined minimum speed and to independently control each contact between the rotators and the ring; the method comprises controlling the speed in variable wind conditions by adjusting one or more of: the turbine cavity, the yaw position of the turbine, the number and force of the rotators that are in contact with the ring, the various generators that are powered by the rotators and the turbine brakes.
14. A method according to claim 13, which includes the steps of controlling the speed by turning the turbine towards the wind direction to increase the speed and away from the wind direction to decrease the speed and change the position of the turbine in a yaw movement or adjust the cage adjustment mechanism as the direction and speed of the wind change. 52-368
15. 15. A method according to claim 14, which includes the steps of using the controller to constantly monitor the turbine and the wind conditions and to adjust the turbine according to the changing wind conditions. 52-368