Field test validation of Flex5, MSC.Adams, alaska/Wind and SIMPACK for load calculations on wind turbines

Abstract

AbstractLoad calculation is a very important part in the development of wind turbines. Prototype testing over the whole product life cycle is not possible. Accurate load calculations are necessary to ensure that the wind turbine withstands the loads during the expected lifetime. During the last 20years, Flex5 developed at the Danish Technical University has been used as standard tool for load calculation. Ongoing development leads to a more detailed simulation of wind turbines. A lot of general purpose multibody programs are available providing packages for load calculation of wind turbines. Within this contribution, the multibody codes Flex5, MSC.Adams, alaska/Wind and SIMPACK are compared with measurements on a prototype of a 2.05MW wind turbine developed by W2E Wind to Energy. The aim of this work is not to set one simulation package as reference but to validate all simulation packages by measurements on a physical wind turbine. A statistical and dynamical evaluation of simulation results and measurements by means of maximum, minimum, mean value, standard deviation and rainflow matrix has been performed to compare the simulation packages. The comparison of the values of wind turbine behaviour such as generated electrical power or rotor speed shows a good agreement between simulations and measurements. This could be expected because of the use of the same controller software as used on the physical wind turbine. Considering the interface loads of the wind turbine, differences occur between the simulation packages caused by different kinds of modelling. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.