Modelling and dynamic characteristics of wind turbine drivetrain based on the variable coefficient sliding mode controller

Vibration is inevitable in operation of mechanical equipment, but severe vibrations will cause serious harm to wind turbines (WTs). This paper takes the drivetrain of 8 MW WT as the object, established a multi-body electromechanical coupling model of WT and verified the accuracy of the established model through the WT drivetrain in the laboratory. Subsequently, based on this model, time-frequency domain analysis was conducted on the vibration response of the WT drivetrain under different control strategies of the generator, and the influence of the generator control strategy on the vibration of the drivetrain was studied. The result shows that the generator control strategy has a significant impact on the vibration response amplitude of the drivetrain, but has a relatively small impact on the frequency component. Meanwhile, the sliding mode controller designed in this paper has good anti-interference ability, which can make the system quickly reach dynamic stability, and effectively suppress the vibration of the main components in the drivetrain. Under the new controller’s control, the transverse vibration displacement of some parts of the WT drivetrain can be reduced by up to nearly 60 %. This paper provides new ideas and new methods for the active vibration reduction control of WT drivetrain.