Bladed Swap Array Controller

The "Swap Array" style controller interface is commonly used in wind turbine simulation. This is an interface that can be used to write custom logic describing control actions of a turbine control system. The controller communicates with the turbine at a discrete time step to ensure optimal and safe operation of the turbine. The key mechanism used to modify the simulation behaviour is by editing values or elements of a the Swap Array Interface. The array of elements is passed between Bladed and the controller during communication intervals. Information regarding how to compile the controller and the definition of the various elements in the interface can be found below.

The controller may be written in any language, either as a DOS or Windows executable program (EXE) capable of reading and writing to shared files, or as a 32 bit Dynamic Link Library (DLL) for Windows compute or 64 bit Shared Object (SO) for Linux compute. A DLL/SO is preferable as it will result in faster simulations, and communication with Bladed may be more reliable.

Note

Certain functionality is not compatible with the swap array style controller interface. Instead the user will need to use the Controller API instead. The functionality that is not supported with the swap array controller includes:

• Multi-rotor turbine simulations where the user will not be able to define controllers to run independently on separate rotors.
• The Hardware test module.
• Obtain measurements from a LIDAR unit to enable feed-forward control.

Last updated 28-08-2024