Investigation of the effect of bending twisting coupling on the loads in wind turbines with superelement blade definition

M O Gözcü,A Kayran

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012040

M O Gözcü, A Kayran

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012040

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Abstract

Bending-twisting coupling in the composite blades is exploited for load alleviation in the whole turbine system. For the purpose of the study, inverse design of a reference blade is performed such that sectional beam properties of the 3D blade design approximately match the sectional beam properties of NREL's 5MW turbine blade. In order to appropriately account for the bending-twisting coupling effect, dynamic superelement of the blade is created and introduced into the multi-body dynamic model of the wind turbine system. Initially, a comparative study is conducted on the performance of wind turbines which have blades defined as superelements and geometrically nonlinear beams, and conclusions are inferred with regard to the appropriateness of the use of superelement blade definition in the transient analysis of the 5MW wind turbine system that is set up in the present study. Multi-body dynamic simulations of the wind turbine system are performed for the power production load case with the constant wind and the normal turbulence model as external wind loadings. For the internal loads, fatigue damage equivalent load is used as the metric to assess the effect of bending-twisting coupling on the load alleviation in the whole wind turbine system. Results show that in the overall, through the bending-twisting coupling induced with the use of off-axis plies in the main spar caps of the blade, damage equivalent loads associated with the critical load components can be reduced in the wind turbine system.

Highlights

1.1 Sustainable Energy and Wind EnergyIn the World, energy demand is exponentially increasing and the eort of engineers to meet this demand mostly depended on the fossil fuel
Three dimensional blade design can be used to generate the superelement of the blade so that it can be used in studying the eect of bending twisting coupling on load alleviation
Before the study of the eect of bending-twisting coupling on the loads acting on the wind turbine, a comparative study is conducted on the performance of the wind turbines which have blades dened as superelement and geometrically nonlinear beams in Samcef Wind Turbines (SWT)

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Sustainable Energy and Wind EnergyIn the World, energy demand is exponentially increasing and the eort of engineers to meet this demand mostly depended on the fossil fuel. In the last twenty years, mankind has learnt how to harvest the energy of sun eectively. The photovoltaic panel is a direct solution to capture the energy of sun; as of today, the eciency of this technology is at low level. The wind energy is the number one sustainable energy type today. Wind turbines have been used for over three thousand years, until the past decades they did not capture the interest of politicians, businesses and consumers. In this period, the growth level of wind energy industry and the increase of electricity production of wind energy have reached top in the list of energy industry. In 1990, the average wind turbine that was installed was around 500

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