Multi-physics power hardware in the loop test bench for on-shore wind turbine nacelles

This paper describes a test bench for wind turbine nacelles enabling system level investigations. It is equipped with an electrical and a mechanical Power Hardware in the Loop (PHIL) interface emulating the behavior of the electrical power grid and the wind field, respectively. A nacelle test bench offers the possibility to speed up the certification process for wind turbines as the regular testing procedure takes place outside, and therefore strongly depends on the weather conditions. The paper describes the motivation for the test bench as well as the advantages of such a setup and its PHIL interfaces to the Real Time Simulators. First results are given as the test bench has just been commissioned. Furthermore, the paper introduces the main approach for the process of building a 1∶1 scale test setup for wind turbines.