Nonlinear frequency domain solution method for aerodynamic and aeromechanical analysis of wind turbines

Abstract

The aerodynamic simulations of wind turbines are typically carried out using a steady inflow condition. However, the aerodynamics and aeroelasticity of wind turbine blades can be significantly affected by inflow wakes due to the environmental conditions or the presence of neighbouring wind turbines. In this paper, the effects of flow unsteadiness on the aerodynamics and aeroelasticity of the wind turbine rotor are investigated. It is found that the unsteadiness of the wake can have an impact on the aerodynamic flow field around the wind turbine rotor and it could also influence the aeroelasticity of the wind turbine. One of the distinctive features of this paper is the application of the highly efficient nonlinear frequency domain solution method for modelling harmonic disturbances for the aerodynamic and aeromechanical analysis of wind turbines. A test case wind turbine is selected for the aerodynamic and aeromechanical analysis as well as for the validation of the method used. The effects of different material properties along with a large vibration amplitude on the aeroelasticity parameter known as aerodynamic damping of the wind turbine blade are also investigated in the present work. Compared to the conventional time domain solution methods, which require prohibitively large computational cost for modelling and solving aerodynamics and aeroelasticity of wind turbines, the proposed frequency domain solution method can reduce the computational cost by one to two orders of magnitude.