Field experiments of power generation using HAWT fitted with hydrostatic transmission

In this study, we replace the mechanical drive train with a hydrostatic transmission which includes a hydraulic pump connected directly to the rotor of the wind turbine. The integration of the hydrostatic transmission into the wind turbine system presents multiple advantages, including: lower LCOE, lower center of gravity and enables, a variable input and constant output in terms of rotational speed. The lower stiffness compared with the mechanical drivetrain, alongside the hydraulic capacitance, introduces a damping effect on the fluctuations, reducing fatigue of the drive train. Field experiments and a cyber-physical test-bench of the wind turbine’s behavior are studied using over a broad range of external conditions. Furthermore, the hydraulic wind turbine shows an efficiency in the range of ~75%.  In addition. the power spectrum model by Tobin et al. (2015) is used to analyze the response of the wind turbine with the hydrostatic transmission.