Patents by Inventor James Alexander NICHOLS

James Alexander NICHOLS has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11976631
    Abstract: Methods of measuring a stall condition of a rotor of a wind turbine are disclosed. In one aspect a stall parameter is obtained on the basis of the power parameter and a thrust parameter; and the stall parameter compared with a threshold to determine a stall condition of the rotor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S
    Inventors: Fabio Caponetti, Karthik Vasudevan, James Alexander Nichols, Jacob Deleuran Grunnet
  • Publication number: 20230265829
    Abstract: A method of controlling a wind turbine blade of a wind turbine comprising: providing data comprising a plurality of pitch angles of the wind turbine blade and corresponding expected power coefficients for the wind turbine, each pitch angle corresponding to a maximum expected power coefficient for a degradation state of the wind turbine blade; obtaining a current power coefficient of the wind turbine; determining a desired pitch angle for the wind turbine blade, the desired pitch angle being equal to a pitch angle from the dataset corresponding to an expected power coefficient equal to the current power coefficient; and changing a pitch angle of the wind turbine blade to the desired pitch angle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2021
    Publication date: August 24, 2023
    Inventors: Jacob Deleuran GRUNNET, James Alexander NICHOLS, Fabio CAPONETTI, Karthik VASUDEVAN
  • Publication number: 20230243336
    Abstract: Methods of measuring a stall condition of a rotor of a wind turbine are disclosed. In one aspect a stall parameter is obtained on the basis of the power parameter and a thrust parameter; and the stall parameter compared with a threshold to determine a stall condition of the rotor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Publication date: August 3, 2023
    Inventors: Fabio Caponetti, Karthik Vasudevan, James Alexander Nichols, Jacob Deleuran Grunnet
  • Patent number: 11572865
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of controlling a wind turbine comprising a tower supporting a rotor comprising a plurality of pitch-adjustable rotor blades. The method includes obtaining a movement signal indicative of a lateral movement of the tower; determining a pitch modulation signal, based on the movement signal, for actuating a rotor blade to produce a desired horizontal force component to counteract the lateral movement of the tower; determining a radial force component acting on a rotor blade; determining a phase offset parameter for the rotor blade based on the radial force component; and, transforming the pitch modulation signal into a pitch reference offset signal for the rotor blade based on the phase offset parameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS A/S
    Inventors: Karthik Vasudevan, Poul Brandt Christensen, James Alexander Nichols, Jacob Deleuran Grunnet
  • Publication number: 20220412306
    Abstract: A method of controlling a wind turbine is provided, comprising identifying an out-of-vertical load acting in a first direction on the wind turbine. A direction of a wind load acting on the wind turbine is determined. If there is a degree of alignment between the direction of the wind load and the first direction, the wind turbine is controlled to reduce the wind load.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 24, 2020
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: James Alexander NICHOLS, Jacob Deleuran GRUNNET, Anders Steen NIELSEN
  • Publication number: 20220260053
    Abstract: There is provided a method of controlling power output of a wind turbine at below-rated wind speed, the method comprising: determining an indication of blade torsion of one or more rotor blades of the wind turbine in dependence on wind speed and/or rotor speed; determining a torsion-corrected blade pitch based on the indication of blade torsion; and using the torsion-corrected blade pitch to control pitch the one or more rotor blades.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2020
    Publication date: August 18, 2022
    Inventors: Fabio CAPONETTI, James Alexander NICHOLS, Benjamin ROWLINSON
  • Publication number: 20210277869
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of controlling a wind turbine comprising a tower supporting a rotor comprising a plurality of pitch-adjustable rotor blades. The method includes obtaining a movement signal indicative of a lateral movement of the tower; determining a pitch modulation signal, based on the movement signal, for actuating a rotor blade to produce a desired horizontal force component to counteract the lateral movement of the tower; determining a radial force component acting on a rotor blade; determining a phase offset parameter for the rotor blade based on the radial force component; and, transforming the pitch modulation signal into a pitch reference offset signal for the rotor blade based on the phase offset parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 3, 2019
    Publication date: September 9, 2021
    Inventors: Karthik VASUDEVAN, Poul Brandt CHRISTENSEN, James Alexander NICHOLS, Jacob Deleuran GRUNNET