Improved toggle-brace viscous damper for vibration mitigation of wind turbine blade

As wind turbine blades increase in size to capture more wind energy, the significance of effective vibration control becomes paramount. This study introduces two passive damping systems, the toggle-brace viscous damper (TBD) and the shear toggle-brace viscous damper (STBD), to mitigate blade vibrations. A full-scale numerical wind turbine model is employed to identify the wind speeds that induce significant blade responses, and the optimal damper positions are determined under various turbulent inflow conditions. Results show that the optimal normalized damper locations are 0.635 in the flapwise direction and 0.245 in the edgewise direction. The actual amplification factor of the TBD in the flapwise direction is 3.71, whereas that of the STBD reaches 6.88. Similarly, in the edgewise direction, the TBD exhibits an amplification factor of 4.01, while the STBD achieves 7.11, highlighting the superior performance of the STBD. This study presents the effectiveness of the improved viscous damper with a toggle-brace mechanical system.