Investigating a flexible wind turbine using consistent time‐stepping schemes

Abstract

PurposeWind turbines are of growing importance for the production of renewable energy. The kinetic energy of the blowing air induces a rotary motion and is thus converted into electricity. From the mechanical point of view the complex dynamics of wind turbines become a matter of interest for structural optimization and optimal control in order to improve stability and energy efficiency. The purpose of this paper therefore is to present a mechanical model of a three‐blade wind turbine with a momentum and energy conserving time integration of the system.Design/methodology/approachThe authors present a mechanical model based upon a rotationless formulation of rigid body dynamics coupled with flexible components. The resulting set of differential‐algebraic equations will be solved by using energy‐consistent time‐stepping schemes. Rigid and orthotropic‐elastic body models of a wind turbine show the robustness and accuracy of these schemes for the relevant problem.FindingsNumerical studies prove that physically consistent time‐stepping schemes provide reliable results, especially for hybrid wind turbine models.Originality/valueThe application of energy‐consistent methods for time discretization is intended to provide computational robustness and to reduce the computational costs of the dynamical wind turbine systems. The model is aimed to give a first access into the investigation of fluid‐structure interaction for wind turbines.