Piecewise linear aeroelastic rotor-tower models for efficient wind turbine simulations

T Macquart,A Pirrera,S Scott,P M Weaver

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1618/4/042033

T Macquart, A Pirrera + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1618/4/042033

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Abstract

The development of software and methodologies able to efficiently and accurately predict the aeroelastic performance of wind turbines at low computational cost — enabling the rapid turnaround of novel concepts — is key to further reducing the levelised cost of energy. However, even the conventional low fidelity methods used for preliminary blade and rotor design are computationally expensive. The authors propose to improve the computational efficiency of dynamic aeroelastic time domain simulations by substituting conventional models with a piecewise linear aeroelastic rotor-tower model. This novel piecewise linear model is described and compared against standard modelling tools in this paper. Results suggest that piecewise linear rotor-tower models can be used to accurately capture the aeroelastic dynamic of wind turbine blades, with a significant (5 – 20×) reduction in computational costs.

Highlights

The global installed wind energy capacity, with the help of political, public, and economic support, is experiencing a sustained growth, with more than 50 gigawatts installed annually over the past 4 years [1]
We start by comparing time domain aerodynamic and structural outputs between the piecewise linear (PL) model and Aeroelastic Turbine Optimisation Methods (ATOM), for a single turbulent DLC 1.1 simulation with a mean wind speed of 15 ms−1
Remarks This paper has presented the application of a novel piecewise linear aeroelastic model of wind turbine rotor-tower assembly for the rapid analysis of wind turbine design load cases

Summary

Introduction

The global installed wind energy capacity, with the help of political, public, and economic support, is experiencing a sustained growth, with more than 50 gigawatts installed annually over the past 4 years [1]. The authors propose to employ a piecewise linear model to evaluate the aeroelastic performance of wind turbines, including predictions of ultimate and fatigue loads, whilst significantly reducing computational costs. Can a piecewise linear aeroelastic model for a wind turbine rotor-tower assembly

Results

Conclusion