A real-time cyber-physical co-simulation platform for integrated aero-electromechanical virtual inertia control of large grid-connected wind turbine

Modern power systems face growing frequency instability due to the continuous reduction of system inertia under high wind power penetration. To address this issue, this paper develops a fully coupled, real-time, closed-loop co-simulation platform for virtual inertia control of large wind turbines, integrating aerodynamic, mechanical, and electrical subsystems within a unified framework. The proposed platform combines RTDS-based electromagnetic transient simulation, GH Bladed aeroelastic modeling, industrial PLC-based control execution, and real-time database synchronization to construct a high-fidelity multiphysics simulation architecture with hardware-in-the-loop capability. A real-time heterogeneous coupling mechanism between RTDS and Bladed is implemented, featuring bidirectional high-speed data exchange, standardized physical quantity mapping, and zero-order-hold-based temporal coordination. This ensures deterministic control execution and cross-domain synchronization, overcoming the idealized and non-real-time limitations inherent to conventional software-only environments. Simulation studies under both steady and turbulent wind conditions reconstruct the full aero-electromechanical interactions of the turbine under frequency disturbance scenarios. The results reveal nonlinear coupling pathways between virtual inertia control and structural fatigue loads, highlighting the asymmetric dynamic response during transient power injections. Quantitative assessments confirm that the proposed scheme improves frequency nadir by up to 0.19 Hz and reduces RoCoF by over 20 %. Techno-economic analysis indicates that the software-based inertia provision can reduce energy storage investment by 5–10 % for a 100 MW wind farm. The proposed platform provides a robust experimental foundation and engineering-oriented validation pathway for developing adaptive, fatigue-aware virtual inertia control strategies, serving as a key technological enabler for reliable operation of next-generation low-inertia power systems.