Blade Root Research Articles

On the failure behavior of a GFRP composite cylinder under Brazier crushing force – An experimental and computational study

The induced ovalization or out-of-plane deformation in the circular and transition airfoils of modern MegaWatt (MW) size wind turbine rotor blades is caused by the combined effect of the applied far-field bending loads and the local structural curvature. In general, the phenomenon of the ovalization or out-of-plane deformation of the circular elastic cross sections under the applied bending load or the internal/external pressure is termed the Brazier effect [1 2]. Considering the poor mechanical performance in the out-of-plane direction of the typically used laminated glass composites for wind turbine rotor blade construction, the current research work aims to develop a thoroughly validated computational methodology to understand the ovalization (out-of-plane deformation) induced failure behavior in circular cross-sections located between the root and transition region of a rotor blade, using a substructure level testing and modeling under representative load conditions. To this end, detailed manufacturing, testing, and a computational modeling campaign is devised and executed at different length scales starting from coupon to cylinder (substructure) level. The required elastic, strength, and fracture properties for the cylinder progressive damage analysis are evaluated using coupon-level experiments following various ASTM standards.The developed numerical methodology is thoroughly validated using the substructure level experimental load–displacement curves, strain, and damage profiles. Detailed experimental and numerical studies reveal that the induced ovalization leads to a non-linear relation between the applied crushing force and the local radius of curvature until the unstable collapse of the cylinder. Based on the thorough local stress and damage analysis, it is evident that along with the dominant interlaminar shear stress (ILSS), the presence of the interlaminar tensile (ILT) stress component is the key to the delamination induced collapse of the cylinder.

Design Method of Full-scale Fatigue Test Load for Wind Turbine Blade

The blade is one of the key components of a wind turbine, and the alternating fatigue load is the main factor leading to the fatigue failure of wind turbine blades. The accuracy of load determines the accuracy of the wind turbine blade test. Based on the equivalent torque time history data from the wind load acting on the blade root, the load of the two-dimensional matrix is obtained by using data compression technology and a rain flow counting algorithm. According to the capture matrix of load data, the frequency of various design loading cases and the distribution of wind speed, the symmetrical load spectrum is calculated and compiled. The fatigue load of a wind turbine blade is calculated for a certain type of 2MW blade, which lays a foundation for the design and test of a wind turbine blade fatigue loading system.

Uncertainty quantification on the influence of blade thickness deviation at different rotational speeds based on flow dissipation analysis

The impact of geometric deviation due to manufacturing on compressor performance is considerable in engineering practice. To investigate the impact of blade thickness deviation on compressor performance and flow loss at various rotational speeds, a three-dimensional steady numerical simulation on Rotor 37 was conducted. The quantification of uncertainty was accomplished using a non-intrusive polynomial chaos method. The viscous dissipation coefficient was introduced to analyze the uncertain influence of blade thickness deviation on flow loss. Based on the type of loss source, the flow field was divided into six regions, including the blade tip region, blade root region, leading edge region, trailing edge region, blade surface region, and mainstream region. The results indicate that the sensitivity of total pressure ratio to thickness deviation increases significantly with an increase in the rotational speed. Under peak efficiency conditions, the effect of blade thickness deviation on flow dissipation in leading edge region decreases initially and then increases with an increase in the rotational speed. Meanwhile, the impact on flow loss in other regions increases with the increase in the rotational speed. Under near stall conditions, the blade thickness deviation has a great impact on the flow losses in the blade tip region, leading edge region, and mainstream region at 60% design rotational speed. However, the blade tip region and trailing edge region are more noticeably affected at 100% design rotational speed. Furthermore, the quantification of standard deviation of flow losses in various regions under different rotational speeds and conditions reveals that the flow loss fluctuation in the leading edge region and mainstream region varies with changes in operating conditions and rotational speeds, but the fluctuation of flow loss in other regions is independent of the rotational speed.

Gaidai-Xing reliability method validation for 10-MW floating wind turbines

In contrast to well-known bivariate statistical approach, which is known to properly forecast extreme response levels for two-dimensional systems, the research validates innovative structural reliability method, which is particularly appropriate for multi-dimensional structural responses. The disadvantage of dealing with large system dimensionality and cross-correlation across multiple dimensions is not a benefit of traditional dependability approaches that deal with time series. Since offshore constructions are built to handle extremely high wind and wave loads, understanding these severe stresses is essential, e.g. wind turbines should be built and operated with the least amount of inconvenience. In the first scenario, the blade root flapwise bending moment is examined, whereas in the second, the tower bottom fore-aft bending moment is examined. The FAST simulation program was utilized to generate the empirical bending moments for this investigation with the load instances activated at under-rated, rated, and above-rated speeds. The novel reliability approach, in contrast to conventional reliability methods, does not call for the study of a multi-dimensional reliability function in the case of numerical simulation. As demonstrated in this work, it is now possible to assess multi-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system failure probability, in the case when only limited system measurements are available.

Experimental investigations into delamination behavior of curved composite laminates reinforced by a pre-hole z-pinning (PHZ) method

In this paper, an experimental study is conducted on the resistance of delamination in curved carbon fiber/epoxy composite laminates reinforced by z-pins. The curvature of the specimens is designed according to that of the aero-engine fan blade roots. A cost-effective pre-hole z-pinning (PHZ) technique is employed to mitigate initial in-plane damage, and the impact of z-pin volume fraction and diameter on interlaminar fracture toughness and bridging behavior is determined through double cantilever beam (DCB) testing. The mode-mixity of z-pin is determined, and the fracture toughness of curved specimens is calculated based on Timoshenko curved beam theory. The results indicate that the mode-mixity varies depending on the location of z-pins. Z-pins are subjected to a mix of crack opening and crack sliding loads during the tests. The primary failure mode of z-pins is pull-out, with a minor portion of the pins experiencing fracture. Specimens with 0.8 vol% z-pins exhibit a fracture toughness that is approximately 567% higher than that of unpinned specimens. The delamination resistance capacity of z-pins is dependent on the mixed-mode ratio, due to the transition in delamination resistance mechanism and failure behavior of the z-pins.

Stability Analysis of Wind Turbine Blades Based on Different Structural Models

In order to better simulate the actual working conditions of wind turbines more realistically, this paper adopts the two-way fluid–structure coupling method to study the NREL 5 MW wind turbine, considering the blade coupling deformation and equivalent stress and strain distribution of the blades with different internal structures under different working conditions. The results show that the maximum equivalent stress and strain distribution of the beam–structure wind turbine blade was near the leading edge of the blade. The maximum equivalent stress and strain distribution of the shell structure wind turbine blade was near the leading edge of the blade root, and the dangerous area is obvious but smaller than that of the beam-type wind turbine. The coupled deformation of a wind turbine model with a shell structure blade with a web is significantly reduced, and the equivalent stress and strain distribution of the skin is similar to that of the shell structure, but the numerical value and the maximum equivalent stress distribution area are significantly smaller. From the comparison of the three, the shell structure blade with a web is the best.

Prospects of improving control over the process of electrochemical machining of the blade airfoil profile using the duplex mode method

The paper discusses the features of machining of a compressor blade airfoil. The problem of airfoil deformations under the action of residual stresses that negatively affect the accuracy of the relative position of the airfoil relative to the blade root is discussed. Methods of compensating for the effect of permanent deformations on the accuracy in blade machining and the impossibility of using this approach when the compressor blade is included in the duplex mode technology of electrochemical machining are specified. The analysis of the pattern of electrochemical machining of the blade airfoil with adjustment of the auxiliary technological base developed by the authors and the use of segmented electrodes showed the effectiveness of its use in order to compensate for airfoil deformations. We suggest measuring the interelectrode gaps in the machining chamber after refixturing the base in order to reduce the total machining time. We also suggest using the modernized electrochemical machining scheme when designing a CNC machine for the machining of a blade airfoil.

On the sensorless synchronous direct drive control of permanent magnet motor for three-blade roots vacuum pump

Different from the traditional permanent magnet motor, the permanent magnet motor for three blade roots vacuum pump (PMM for TBRVP) is difficult to use sensors (or encoders) to achieve multi-motor collaborative control due to its special structure, extreme operating environment and harsh operating reliability requirements; Considering the high failure rate of mechanical structures such as gearboxes, direct drive PMM for TBRVP is becoming mainstream. To this end, a 1.5 kW epoxy resin sealed vacuum pump permanent magnet motor is designed, the key parameters (resistance, inductance, flux, etc.) of a single motor and the non-sensory control system are determined based on the prototype experiment, and then the dual motor collaborative control model is designed, and the deviation coupling multi-motor synchronous control strategy based on the virtual motor is designed. The analysis of four typical working conditions shows that the maximum rotor position following error between the motors is 2.29° (far lower than the critical value of 5°), and has good anti-interference ability.

Comparison of three DWM-based wake models at above-rated wind speeds

In this study we investigate three mid-fidelity wind turbine wake models based on the dynamic wake meandering (DWM) model principle, and compare their performance with a reference dataset, produced with large-eddy simulations using the actuator line model. The models are compared with respect to flow field, power, and loads on a row of four 5MW reference turbines experiencing above-rated wind conditions. In general, the DWM models show fairly good agreement with large-eddy simulation for the time-averaged flow fields, blade forces and power, with increasing differences along the turbine row. Also when comparing fatigue loads of blade root moments, the differences between the models increase further into the row, with deviations up to 25 % of the reference case. However, while the development in blade root moment fatigue along the turbine row is predominantly driven by the energy content at the frequency corresponding to the turbine’s rotational period (1P) for the DWM models, the large-eddy simulation results suggest that the key drivers for the blade root and tower loads are the increase in meandering and energy at higher frequencies (> 1P) deeper into the turbine row. For the tower loads, the DWM models highly underestimate the fatigue for the waked turbines. From these results, we suggest priorities for future model developments so that robust model implementations can be used in wind farm design and operation.

Analysis of Milling Force and Optimization of Milling Trajectory for the NC Machining of Small Integral Impeller

In order to reduce the deformation of small integral impeller and improve the surface quality of blade in the process of NC machining, the influence of trajectory parameters on the milling force in the process of impeller NC finishing is studied and the orthogonal experiment with trajectory parameters as the main influencing factor is designed. In Deform 3D process simulation system, the physical dynamic simulation of NC milling force is carried out, the influence rules of the trajectory parameters on the milling forces in X, Y and Z directions are analysed, and then the range analysis method is used to optimize the simulation data to get the optimal combination of the trajectory parameters. Taking the actual production of a small integral impeller as an example, the trajectory parameters before and after optimization are respectively applied to 5-axis NC machining and the data of product inspection show that the optimized trajectory parameters not only improve the rigidity of the blade root and reduce the overall deviation of the blade, but also verify that the small milling force is obtained after the optimization of the trajectory parameters for the finish machining aiming at the surface quality and the optimization scheme of the trajectory parameters proposed in this paper is feasible.

Stochastic wind farm flow generation using a reduced order model of LES

Large eddy simulations are computationally expensive, which typically limits the simulation time and hence the statistics useful for validation. Here, a reduced order model with a stochastic engine is used to generate stochastic inflow to 48 wind turbines in the Lillgrund wind farm. The stochastic flow realization captures the power production and more importantly the correct cross-correlations in power and blade root flapwise bending moments over the large spatiotemporal region, which the wind farm covers. The analysis show how the cross-correlation increase further into the wind farm, where the highly turbulent flow becomes increasingly self-organized and how the dynamic interaction across the entire wind farm is captured by the first eight modes. Overall, the reduced order model captures the correct dynamics at a fraction of the computational cost, effectively generalizing the LES results beyond a relatively short simulation period.

A novel methodology for the design of diffuser-augmented hydrokinetic rotors

Shrouded wind and hydrokinetic turbines are being widely studied nowadays. Although actuator disk studies have concluded that the addition of a diffuser around a rotor can improve the Power Coefficient, not many designs have realized those benefits when compared to standard high performance bare turbines, as shown by Nunes et al. (2020) [1]. One reason for low power coefficient on several designs is massive flow separation on the hub surface due to high adverse pressure gradient inside the diffuser, resulting on low mass flow capture and, hence, poor performance. This work presents a novel design methodology for shrouded rotors, which takes into consideration the influence of the entire linear cascade on each annular section. Also, the blade root is left unloaded to guarantee that no boundary layer separation occurs on the hub surface by allowing a layer of energized fluid to bypass the rotor. A turbine modeled by this method has been numerically studied and is shown herein to deliver a peak power coefficient of 0.415 normalized by the diffuser's largest cross sectional area.

Nonlinear Contact Stiffness and Damping Identification of a Tenon Connection Structure Based on Its Dynamic Characteristics

A tenon connection structure is widely used for the blade-disk connection in turbomachinery, and its contact stiffness and contact damping have caused nonlinear dynamic characteristics. The nonlinear dynamic characteristics of a blade-disk structure are mainly affected by its contact stiffness and damping characteristics, which are difficult to accurately predict and affected by many factors such as the operating speed and the centrifugal force caused by the rotation speed. Based on a single blade and tenon groove structure and the use of the dynamic characteristics experiments and simulations, the influence law of the contact stiffness and damping of the tenon connection structure with the change of the blade root compression force on the dynamic characteristics of the structure is obtained. The average relative error of identifying the contact stiffness is 0.48%; thus, identification of the nonlinear contact stiffness and damping of multiple pairs of contact curved surfaces is realized.

Investigation on the Aerodynamic Performance of High-Pressure Cylinders under the Mode of Regulating Steam Supply with an Intermedium-Pressure Adjustment Valve

In order to investigate the operational performance of the high-pressure (HP) cylinder towards a 300 MW boiler unit, the three-dimensional calculation method was applied to simulate the aerodynamic flow characteristics of the last five stage cylinder blades, including limiting streamline, isentropic efficiency along the blade height, and relative work amounts. Simulation results show that with the back pressure controlled at 3.4 MPa and the inlet steam flow decreasing to a certain extent, the flow state of the last three stage blades begins to deteriorate. When the back pressure continues to drop, the flow state becomes unstable at the blade root and the blade tip on the suction surface of the rotor blade, while the flow state is stable on the pressure surface of the rotor blade and the surface of the stationary blade. If the flow rate decreases, the flow separation area on the suction surface of the moving blade decreases, and the flow performance can be improved. With the decrease in the boiler load, the total-total isentropic efficiency for the last three stage blades of the HP cylinder gradually decreases. In addition, the isentropic efficiency at the blade root and blade tip is lower than that for the blade body, which is closely related to the flow separation phenomenon of the last three stages of moving blades at the root and tip. In the working condition of the intermedium-pressure adjustment valve, since the temperature variation is within a limited range, operational safety can be guaranteed under the design blade frequency and strength. This paper provides the upper and lower limits of the exhaust gas pressure for the HP cylinder under the intermedium-pressure adjustment valve participation mode concerning various working conditions as well as corresponding constraints. This is conducive to guiding the design and safe operation of the intermedium-pressure adjustment valve. Through adjusting the intermedium-pressure adjustment valve, a specific supply capacity of the unit can also be satisfied at the lower load, which is beneficial to the deep peak regulation of the unit.

A Code-to-Code Comparison for Dynamic Modeling and Response Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbine Blade Mating Process

Abstract Offshore wind turbine blade installation using jack-up crane vessel is a challenging task. Wave- and wind-induced loads on the installation system can cause large relative motion between the blade root and the hub during the mating process. Currently, several numerical tools are used to analyze such critical global motion responses; however, the industry suffers from lack of experiments and full-scale measurements to validate the accuracy of these results. Consequently, a code-to-code comparison exercise becomes critical as it allows comparing different numerical tools for reliable prediction and verification of results. In the present article, a numerical model of the offshore wind turbine blade mating process using a jack-up crane vessel is developed in orcaflex, and a code-to-code comparison is performed against sima; both these tools are immensely used in the industry for modeling marine operations. Different comparisons are made between both the tools such as: (1) modal analyses of the jack-up vessel and the blade lifting gear, (2) time-domain analysis of the fully coupled installation vessel-crane-blade system, and (3) a comprehensive sensitivity study based on different seed numbers and simulation periods. The results of the study show a good agreement between both the tools with a deviation of less than 3% in terms of modal analysis and less than 5% variation in time-domain results. Further, the article provides modeling guidelines for the industry practitioners that heavily rely on both the tools for modeling marine operations.

Numerical investigation on unsteady characteristics of ducted fans in ground effect

Ducted fans are widely used in various applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) due to the high efficiency, low noise and high safety. The unsteady characteristics of ducted fans flying near the ground are significant, which may bring stability problems. In this paper, the sliding mesh technology is applied and the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) method is adopted to evaluate the influence of ground on the aerodynamic performance of ducted fans. The time-averaged results show that the ground leads to the decrease of duct thrust, the increase of rotor thrust and the decrease of total thrust. The transient results show that there exist small-scale stall cells with circumferential movements in ground effect. The stall cells start to appear at the blade root when the height is 0.8 rotor radius distance, and arise at both the blade root and tip when the height drops to 0.2. It is found that the unsteady cells rotate between blade passages with an approximate relative speed of 30%-80% of the fan speed, and lead to thrust fluctuations up to 37% of the total thrust. The results are essential to the flight control design of the ducted fan flying vehicle, to ensure its stability in ground effect.

Numerical investigation of the effect of blade distortion laws on the corner flow separation of the axial-flow fan

To study the effect on performance of different blade distortion laws of axial flow fans, the radial distributions of blade stagger angle were fit as Bézier curves, and five distribution laws were established. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were carried out for the fan schemes. The results show that distortion near the blade root can effectively restrain the corner separation vortex from climbing along the blade suction surface, so that the low-energy fluid accumulates in the corner region. Tip distortion rises the pressure difference between the pressure and the suction surface, and the turbulence intensity of the tip leakage is increased. Root distortion inhibits the CV diffusion, resulting the decay of tip leakage vortex, thereby improving the stall margin. Relative to a uniform distortion blade, the blade-root distortion scheme increases the radial load of the blade, while the tip distortion scheme results in a decrease of the blade load coefficient. The maximum load position of the end-zone distorted blade moves to the root area, while the maximum load position of the middle distorted blade shifts to the tip area. The end-zone distortion improves the efficiency and total pressure of the fan without changing the efficient working range, and is considered to be the optimal scheme. The maximum pressure coefficient of the end-zone distortion scheme is increased by 4.97% and the maximum efficiency is increased by 1.28%.

Research on coupled dynamic characteristics of Floating Wind Turbine under complex environment

The fully coupled aerodynamic-hydrodynamic-mooring numerical model of floating offshore wind turbine(FOWT) has been established. The complex conditions such as second-order wave force, full-field turbulent wind, and mooring break have been taking into account. Using OrcaFlex and FAST to calculate the dynamic response of FOWT under the combined action of wind, wave and current. The time-domain response of floating foundation, mooring tension, blade root contact force, aerodynamic power, and wind rotor thrust are obtained. And the effect of the turbulent wind and mooring break at different positions on the FOWT are studied. The results show that compared with the platform motion and mooring tension, the aerodynamic power and rotor thrust are more sensitive to the turbulent wind, and there are fluctuations in amplitude and multiple peaks in the frequency spectrum. Compared with the leeward side, the mooring break on the windward side is a more dangerous situation, and it is easy to cause the collapse of platform and the break of the remaining mooring. The mooring break on the leeward side is relatively safe, and it will produce a drift in the sway direction, and have little impact on the safety of the wind turbine.

Temporal and spatial characterisation of tidal blade load variation for structural fatigue testing

To achieve the full potential of tidal stream energy, developers are incentivised to use larger blades on tidal turbines. This requires validation of blade structural designs through full-scale blade fatigue tests to de-risk the engineering process. However, the loading scenarios encountered in testing facilities and those in reality could be significantly different, which induces errors in blade loads and fatigue damage. Here we characterise the unsteady tidal blade load variation through model-scale experiment. It was found that the standard deviations of thrust load range between 200% and 637% of condition without waves. This results in an increase of predicted fatigue damage between 6% and 18%. It was observed that the centre of effort shifts towards the blade root when encountering wave crests of opposing waves, which has not been reported in the literature to date. To reduce errors in fatigue test while the centre of effort is fixed, matching blade shear forces should be sacrificed to match target bending moment at the root. Matching blade shear forces leads to a reduction of predicted fatigue damage ranges from 17% to 25%, which can induce errors in fatigue testing. We anticipate our findings would facilitate the development of fatigue testing of tidal turbine blades.

Effects of Blade Extension on Power Production and Ultimate Loads of Wind Turbines

Blade extension is an important type of technical transformation to improve the energy production of turbines for early-built wind farms. To evaluate the effects of blade extension on wind turbines, a 1.5 MW commercial wind turbine with three 37.5 m long blades is taken as the research object; the power enhancement and the load variations are systemically evaluated for three different blade extension lengths (1 m, 1.5 m and 2 m) resorting to the software GH-Bladed. The load cases cover all the requirements of the IEC-61400-1 standard. It is found that the optimum tip-speed ratio λopt and the corresponding power coefficient CPmax increase with the blade extension length. The annual energy power production is enhanced by about 3%, 4% and 6% for the extension length of 1 m, 1.5 m and 2 m, respectively. The steady loads and dynamic loads, especially the thrust force of the rotor, the flapwise moment of the blade root and the overturning moment at the tower bottom, are significantly enhanced as the improvement of the power. In particular, the percentage increase of these quantities are over 10% when the extension achieves 2 m. It is also shown that blade extension can produce good economic benefit and the benefit improves with the extension length within the safety margin. The paper provides an important reference for this type of technical transformation.