Power Flow Analysis on the Dual Input Transmission Mechanism of Small Wind Turbine Systems

Abstract

A parallel planetary gear train design is proposed to construct the wind turbine system that has double inputs and one output. The proposed system is flexible for the application, which may use a combination of two rotors, as used for horizontal axis or vertical axis wind turbines. The proposed transmission mechanism merges the dual time varied input wind powers to a synchronous generator. The effect of the gear train parameters on the dynamic power flow variation is modeled and simulated for the proposed wind turbine system. Results indicate the proposed planetary gear train system is a feasible and efficient design for its application to wind turbine systems. The dynamic torque equilibrium equations between meshed gear pairs are employed to analyze the dynamic power flow. The nonlinear behavior of a synchronous generator is also included in the modeling. The dynamic responses of the dual input transmission mechanism are simulated using the 4th order Runge–Kutta method. The study also investigates the effect of system parameters used in this wind turbine system (i.e., the wind speed, the magnetic flux synchronous generator, and the inertia of flywheels) on variations in electrical power output.