In-Stream Hydrokinetic Turbine Fault Detection and Fault Tolerant Control - A Benchmark Model

Increased interest in renewable energy production has created demand for novel methods of electricity production. With a high potential for low cost power generation in locations otherwise isolated from the grid, in-stream hydrokinetic turbines could serve to help meet this growing demand. Hydrokinetic turbines possess higher operations and maintenance (O&M) costs due to their isolated nature and harsh operating environment when compared with other sources of renewable energy. As such, techniques must be developed to mitigate these costs through the application of fault-tolerant control (FTC) and machine condition monitoring (MCM) for increased reliability and maintenance forecasting. Hence, the primary objective of this paper is to address a key limitation in hydrokinetic turbine research: the lack of widely available data for use in developing models by which to conduct FTC and MCM. To this end, a 20 kW research hydrokinetic turbine implemented in Fatigue Aerodynamics Structures and Turbulence (FAST) is presented and housed within the Matlab/Simulink environment. This paper details the high-fidelity simulation platform development together with the characteristics of generated data with a focus on future FTC and MCM implementation.