Time-accurate aeroelastic simulations of a wind turbine in yaw and shear using a coupled CFD-CSD method

Abstract

In the present study, aeroelastic simulations of horizontal-axis wind turbine rotor blades were conducted using a coupled CFD-CSD method. The unsteady blade aerodynamic loads and the dynamic blade response due to yaw misalignment and non-uniform sheared wind were investigated. For this purpose, a CFD code solving the RANS equations on unstructured meshes and a FEM-based CSD beam solver were used. The coupling of the CFD and CSD solvers was made by exchanging the data between the two solvers in a loosely coupled manner. The present coupled CFD-CSD method was applied to the NREL 5MW reference wind turbine rotor, and the results were compared with those of CFD-alone rigid blade calculations. It was found that aeroelastic blade deformation leads to a significant reduction of blade aerodynamic loads, and alters the unsteady load behaviours, mainly due to the torsional deformation. The reduction of blade aerodynamic loads is particularly significant at the advancing rotor blade side for yawed flow conditions, and at the upper half of rotor disk where wind velocity is higher due to wind shear.