Integration of mechanical and electrical hardware for testing full scale wind turbine nacelles

This paper describes in detail the 7.5 and 15 megawatt mechanical test benches located at the Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing Facility (WTDTF) at Clemson University's Restoration Institute in North Charleston, SC, USA, including their ability to couple with a 15 megawatt, hardware-in-the-loop, electric grid simulator at the Duke Energy eGRID Center located at the same site. System topology of both the mechanical and electrical systems are discussed in detail and special attention is paid to how the two systems may be used simultaneously to test full scale wind turbine nacelles. Additionally, the results of two model development surveys are presented. These surveys were completed by the WTDTF's internal engineering team, suppliers, and customers, and are used to shape the model development strategy for the mechanical test benches. Finally, a control system application for the developed models is described.