Development of a high fidelity finite element model of a wind turbine blade via modal testing

Download
2015
Amer, Chadi
The design of an optimised horizontal axis 5-meter-long wind turbine rotor blade, is a research and development project, in order to fulfil the requirements of high efficiency torque-from-wind production. For this purpose, a research study is presented here, by investigating the structural characteristics of a composite wind turbine blade via finite element modelling and experimental modal analysis. At first, modal tests are performed by using various sensor-actuator pair combinations. After that the geometry was drawn via CATIA software. The materials are assigned as; two different types of glass fabrics, polymeric foam core material and steel-balsa wood combination and the finite element model of the blade was generated via MSC© PATRAN software with various meshes created on each structural part of the blade. MSC© NASTRAN was used as a solver for the dynamic analyses in order to obtain the natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes, namely; the first three out-of-plane bending, the first in-plane bending and the first torsional ones. Mesh independency check is also made before the analyses. In all analyses, the blade’s boundary conditions are set as free-free and fixed-free. Finally, the experimental modal analysis results are used to update the low fidelity model via FEMTools software in order to obtain a high fidelity finite element model of the wind turbine blade.

Suggestions

Horizontal axis wind turbine rotor blade: winglet and twist aerodynamic design and optimization using CFD
Elfarra, Monier Ali; Akmandor, İbrahim Sinan; Sezer Uzol, Nilay; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2011)
The main purpose of this study is to aerodynamically design and optimize winglet, twist angle distribution and pitch angle for a wind turbine blade using CFD to produce more power. The RANS solver of Numeca Fine/Turbo was validated by two test cases, the NREL II and NREL VI blades. The results have shown a considerable agreement with measurements for both cases. Two different preconditioners have been implemented for the low Mach number flow. The results have shown the superiority of Merkle preconditioner o...
Dynamic modelling and simulation of a wind turbine
Altuğ, Ayşe Hazal; Yavrucuk, İlkay; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2015)
In this thesis, a dynamic model for a horizontal axis wind turbine is developed for an upwind configuration using the MATLAB/Simulink environment. Blade Element Momentum Theory is used to model the rotor. It is assumed that the rotor blades are rigid and wind speed is uniform. Aerodynamic and gravitational forces are calculated as distributed loads. Verification of the model is done by using the LMS Samtech, Samcef for Wind Turbines software. Aerodynamic properties of the blades, sectional loads and moments...
Design and analysis of test rig for small scale wind turbine blade
İçen, Mustafa.; Çöker, Demirkan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2019)
In this thesis, a test setup for the experimental 5 meter RÜZGEM wind turbine blade and that can be used for small scale wind turbine blades up to 9 meter is designed and analyzed. The purpose of this thesis is to help establishing the test infrastructure under METUWIND project such as NREL, RISØ, CRES. The literature on the existing facilities is reviewed. After that, RÜZGEM wind turbine blade is introduced and design loads are presented. To apply these loads appropriately to the blade, the moment distribu...
Finite element modelling of a composite wind turbine blade with fully-bonded and partically unbonded trailing edge
Özyıldız, Meltem; Çöker, Demirkan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2018)
In this thesis, strength analysis of an existing 5-meter glass-fiber epoxy composite wind turbine blade subjected to monotonic loading condition is presented. Finite element analysis is employed to simulate the virtual testing of the blade and understand the failure modes/mechanisms which may lead to the ultimate failure of the blade. CAD Model of the blade is prepared using NX 10.0 and ANSYS ACP/Pre module is utilized for building the material model of the blade. The evaluation of the stresses is carried o...
Determination of the bending twisting coupling potential of composite materials via digital image correlation and its implementation in wind turbine blades
Şener, Özgün; Kayran, Altan; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2017)
In this thesis study, the main objective is to investigate the effect of bending-twisting coupling in composite wind turbine blades on the load alleviation, power generation and structural performance of the wind turbine system. For this purpose, experimental and numerical study is initially conducted to determine the bend-twist coupling potentials of composite materials. Bending-twisting behavior of composite materials are determined through a comparative study via the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) syste...
Citation Formats
C. Amer, “Development of a high fidelity finite element model of a wind turbine blade via modal testing,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2015.