JOURNAL OF INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH IN

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

MONITORING SMALL OFF-GRID WIND TURBINE

INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM USING
MICROCONTROLLER AND LABVIEW
1
GAYATHRI.R , 2DR.E.LATHA MERCY, 3P.NARASIMMAN
1
P.G Scholar , GCT,Coimbatore
2
Associate Professor, GCT, Coimbatore
3
Assistant Professor, Kings College of Engg., Pudukkotai
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
ABSTRACT—Wind monitoring is essential for knowing the wind potential when setting up a wind farm. When
the wind farm is in operation, all the parameters that affect a wind turbine are to be measured to know if the
system is efficient. Inaccuracy in wind measurements lead to substantial economic loss. In this paper, a wind
turbine instrumentation system is developed in software to measure parameters like, wind speed, wind direction,
temperature, pressure and humidity. LabVIEW is used as the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for processing
and monitoring all the parameters. The monitoring system developed measures current and voltage to compare
the output power generated and the power factor with the actual data.

Index Terms—LabVIEW, GUI

I INTRODUCTION
Assessing of potential wind farm sites and monitoring and maintaining existing wind farms is essential using a
global standard and is the most accurate technology. Monitoring of wind is required for wind resource
assessment, prior to setting up a wind farm [2]. The wind assessment is done for about a year and the data
gathered at regular intervals is analyzed. For the site selection, wind shear, turbulence and acceleration are the
factors that are to be considered. Since the energy from the wind is not constant, the minimum available energy
at the site is to be calculated. Also, the measurement is done after setting up of the wind park to check the
quality of the system. Under the Center for Wind Energy Technology, there are at present 327 wind monitoring
systems. Using the long-term meteorological data and the new data, an accurate wind resource assessment is
obtained. The comparison of the both helps in the determination of the wind power density of the site and also to
decide whether the site is suitable for installation of a wind farm.
The wind resource assessment report statistics must include the following :Mean and annualized mean wind
speed, wind shear, wind power, mean air temperature, turbulence intensity, wind rose, daily and hourly
distribution, speed frequency distribution, etc. The wind power is directly proportional to the cube of wind speed
on the site, to the square of thediameter of the rotor and to the air density. Using the wind site data, the rotor
blades are designed to know if developing a wind farm at that site is profitable or not. A continuousmonitoring
after the wind farm is in operation helps us to analyze if maximum output is generated by the generator and to
know if the system is healthy or not. A monitoring system such as this, allows the operator to know if any
maintenance is required. Often, pitch regulation is the most important factor for monitoring a wind turbine. This
is necessary when wind speed is beyond the rated wind speed. The Wind Turbine Generator chosen for the site
must be chosen according to the annual energy production and levelised cost of production.
The choice of appropriate measurement equipment and its correct installation are crucial. The equipment used
for measurement must perform precisely to ensure the quality of data essential for producing accurate wind site
assessments. A small discrepancy of even 5% in the evaluation of wind speed data drastically multiplies during
assessment, calculations and results in a loss of seven digit economic figures. To evaluate whether a wind farm
will be profitable, investors and banks require wind site assessments based on the most accurate measurement of
data. Compared to the costs for the construction of a new wind farm, the costs for a high standard measuring
system are minimal. The regulations IEC 61400-1201:2005 and TR6 are the most significant, describing the
optimal installation of masts, traverse and sensors.

II WIND TURBINE SIZE AND WIND FARM SITE

SELECTION
Turbines with a diameter of less than 15m and a power output below 50kW are classified as small. However,
most small wind turbines have a diameter of around 7m or less and a power output ranging between 1kW and

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ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
10kW. For very small installations, such as a remote household, wind turbines can have a diameter smaller than
t
2m and output of kW or less [3]. A typical small wind turbine is shown in figure1.

Fig.1 Basic parts of small Wind Turbine

Site selection for a wind turbine is of utmost importance in ensuring its reliability and appropriate performance.
Wind turbines should be sited away from any major obstructions (such as trees, houses), with a clear exposure
to the prevailing wind. Ideally, a wind turbine should be set up on a smooth hill top, where the air flow in
general is reasonably smooth and free from excessive turbulence, which may cause damage and shorten the
working life of a turbine. Alternatively, a wind turbine should be set on a tower as high as possible, since wind
speed increases with height. Figure 2 shows the effect of height for selection of a proper site.
site

Fig.2 Wind Site Selection

III OVERALL INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM

The instrumentation
trumentation system consists of data acquisition (DAQ) hardware using PIC Microcontroller,
Microcontroller the sensors
and the LabVIEW software for the real-time
real time monitoring of, wind speed, wind direction, temperature, pressure,
humidity, AC and DC power waveforms [4][7]. The functional block diagram of the whole instrumentation
instrument
system is shown in figure 3.. The developed system
system has not only been used for data acquisition and instrument
control applications, but also for database development and data analysis. The results are displayed
displ and stored in
real time. Signal conditioning hardware is required for these systems to condition
condition and isolate the voltage and
information signals before connecting to the DAQ board of the overall system.
The proposed instrumentation phase of the wind turbine monitoring unit includes LM35 temperaturet Sensor,
wind speed measurement setup, HMC5883L directiondir sensor, HR 201 humidity
umidity sensor and SPD100G capacitive
pressure transducer, signal conditioning circuits,
circuit LCD display,
isplay, PIC16F77A IC and LabVIEW as shown in figure
3.
The data acquisition hardware proposed in the system is PIC16F77A Microcontroller, which which is interfaced to the
computer through a USB to Serial converter.The
converter.The PIC16F877A features 256 bytes of EEPROM data memory,
self programming, an ICD, 2 Comparators, 8 channels of 10-bit 10 Analog-to-Digital
Digital (A/D) converter, 2
capture/compare/PWM functions [5] 5].. The synchronous serial port can be configured as either 3-wire
3 Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI™) or the 2-wire
2 Inter-Integrated
Integrated Circuit (I²C™) bus and a Universal Asynchronous
Receiver Transmitter (USART).
USB to serial adapters are cables that convert the data sent by a serial-enabled ed device for use by a USB port
[11][12]. The serial end has a DB9 connector, which plugs into the serial device. The USB connector plugs into

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ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
the computer's USB port or a connected USB hub. The data that are transmitted
transmitted by the serial device are sent
directly to the USB port, where it is passed to software to interpret it.
it
.

Fig.3 Overall Instrumentation System

rogramming language created by National Instruments

LabVIEW is a graphical programming I (NI)
(NI)[1]. The LabVIEW
programs are called virtual instruments. The front panel is the user interface. The block diagram includes the
graphical code. Programming using LabVIEW is easy compared to other coding systems, thus consumesco less
time in programming [9]. Communication using LabVIEW
LabVIEW to remote panel is possible by GSM, GPS or
Ethernet, etc.

Pressure Measurement:
Barometric pressure is used with air temperature to determine air density. It is difficult to measure accurately in
windy environments because of the dynamic pressures induced induced when wind flows across an instrument
enclosure. An indoor or office environment is a preferred setting for a pressure sensor.
The Pressure sensor used in this case is the SPD100G capacitive transducer as shown in figure f 4.The Smart
Pressure Device SPD series of pressure sensors are silicon based and encapsulated in modified plastic Dual In
Line packages, to accommodate six pins for through-board
through board printed circuit mounting. The output voltages of both
types are proportional to the pressure that is measured.
measure

Fig.4SPD100G Pressure Transducer

Temperature Measurement:
As temperature is an important descriptor of a wind farm’s operating environment and is usually measured
either near ground level (2 to 3m) or near hub height. In most locations, the average near ground level air
temperature will be within 1°C of the average at hub height. It is also used to calculate air density, a variable
required to estimate the wind power density and a wind turbine power output.

Fig.5 Circuit diagram of LM35 with load resistor

LM35 is the temperature

ure sensor that is used for temperature measurement. It is a precision integrated-circuit
integrated
temperature sensor, whose output voltage linearly varies with the Celsius temperature so there is no need for
complex calibration of the sensor [10].

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ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Every transducer or a sensor has its own relationship between its actual output and the voltage found in its
output terminal. The temperature sensor LM35 maintains a proportional relationship with the voltage output.
The relationship is shown
hown in equation 1.
1

   10 …. (1)
(1

The load resistance is added for protection. When the LM35 device is applied with a 200-Ω
200 load resistor, the
device is relatively immune to wiring capacitance because the capacitance forms a bypass from ground to input
and not on the output [8]. The
he circuit diagram is shown in figure
f 5.

Humidity Measurement:
Humidity sensor works on the principle of relative humidity and gives the output in the form of voltage. This
analog voltage provides
rovides the information about the percentage relative humidity present in the environment. A
miniature sensor consisting of a RH sensitive material deposited on a ceramic substrate. The AC resistance
(impedance) of the sensor decreases as relative humidity increases.
HR201 is a new kind of humidity-sensitive
humidity sensitive resistor made from organic macromolecule materials. It has
excellent linearity, low power consumption, wide measurement range, quick response, anti-pollution,
anti high
stability and high performance-price
price ratio.
r Figure 6 shows the HR 201 Humidity sensor.
HR201 sensor measures humidity by variation of output through resistance variation. As resistance varies,
varie the
voltage varies. This can be used to calibrate the sensor to measure the humidity.

Fig.6HR201 Humidity Sensor

Wind Speed Measurement

Wind speed is the most important indicator of a site’s wind resource. In this paper, a small wind mill has been
set up along with a motor. When the blades move, the rotational movement causes
causes a small voltage in the motor
[6]. This voltage is measured and calibrated to find the wind speed. The measurement set up requires a small
torque for the blades to rotate and to produce voltage. Wind direction must be known for the system to work.
When the blades rotate, voltage is developed in the DC motor and can be measured using a voltmeter
voltme or a
multimeter. Figure 7 shows a prototype of a small wind mill set up. The wind speed can be calibrated using the
voltage developed by the system.

Fig.7 Small wind mill setup

Wind Direction Measurement

Wind direction measurements are a necessary ingredient for modeling the spatial distribution of the wind
resource across a project area and for optimizing the layout of the wind turbines

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A digital compass IC can also lso serve the purpose
purpos of a wind mill setup. The IC operates Anisotropic
Magnetoresistive technology
echnology and allows us to measure both the direction and the magnitude of the earth’s
magnetic field.. The current in the sensor is affected by the magnetic field and thus, the direction is sensed.
Figure 8 shows the HMC5993L Digital Compass IC.

Fig 8 HMC5993L Digital Compass IC

IV SIMULATION AND RESULTS

There are 14 characters that are sent serially. The beginning is marked with ‘*’ symbol. Only when the symbol
is encountered, the data acquisition begins. The VISA begins with Open, Read and Close options required for
data acquisition process.

Measurements in LabVIEW:
The blockdiagram for pressure measurement is shown in figure
fig 9
.

Fig.
Fig.9Block diagram of Pressure Measurement

The pressure measurement is done by analyzing the characters 3 and 4. These characters receive the numerical
value of pressure and the data is transmitted serially.
The subset is first taken from the string and then the string to number conversion is done.
done This number consists
of the voltage output. For measuring the pressure, the voltage is divided by a constant.

Fig.
Fig.10Block Diagram of Humidity Measurement

Fig.11Block
Block Diagram of Power and Wind Speed Measurement

12Block Diagram of Temperature Measurement

Fig.12

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Fig.13
13Block Diagram of wind direction Measurement

In each case, the relevant characters are selected and used for analysis. Figures 10 to 13 shows the block
diagram of each sensors in LAbVIEW. The data is logged to the system in the Microsoft
Micro Excel for future
reference. The Front Panel of the overall system is shown in figure14.
figure

Fig 14 Front Panel of the Overall System

Hardware setup of the overall system:

system
The hardware part of the system consists of
1. Power supply region
2. Signal Condtioning Circuits
3. Sensor Cirucits
4. PIC Microcontroller
5. LCD Display Unit
The input voltage is limited to 5V and thus a step down tranformer is used in the power supply unit to provide
the necessary input voltage to the PIC Microcontroller. The AC supply is is then rectified using a bridge rectifier
and a regulator provides protection for the overall circuit by limiting the voltage.

The HR201 Humidity Sensor is connected to the 1kΩ 1k resistor to provide an output voltage which varies with
humidity. The Pressure re sensor detects the pressure and consists of a signal conditioning circuit to provide
variable voltage according to pressure variation. Direction Sensor IC detemines the direction using the earth’s
electro magnetic field. LM35 sensor senses the temperature
temperature and provides an output voltage propoertionally. The
windmill setup has a DC motor to produce voltage. Using this, wind speed is measured. All these sensors are
connected to the PIC Microcontroller. The output is displayed in the LCD display board. The overall
o hardware
setup is shown in Annexue I.

V CONCLUSION
Thus in this paper, the analysis of instrumentation
nstrumentation system with parameters like Temperature, Pressure, Voltage,
Humidity, Wind direction and Wind speed has been done using LabVIEW and PIC Microcontroller is used for
its data acquisition. The chioce of components and its signal conditioning circuitry for developing the wind
turbine instrumentation system has been discussed in detail. The system developed is economical and
monitoring is done visually. The data is logged for future analysis
The analysis of instrumentation system can be further extended by using precise sensors and develop a small
scale wind mill
ill for testing. The effect of humidity
humidity can be studied in detail. The overall instrumentation
instrumen system

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can be combined and a hardware system can be developed for monitoring and data logging. The setup can
further be made as a single product.

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ANNEXURE I

Hardware setup of the overall system

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