A computational platform for considering the effects of aerodynamic and seismic load combination for utility scale horizontal axis wind turbines

The wide deployment of wind turbines in locations with high seismic hazard has led engineers to take into account a more comprehensive seismic design of such structures. Turbine specific guidelines usually use simplified methods and consider many assumptions to combine seismic demand with the other operational loads effecting the design of these structures. As the turbines increase in size and capacity, the interaction between seismic loads and aerodynamic loads becomes even more important. In response to the need for a computational tool that can perform coupled simulations of wind and seismic loads, a seismic module is developed for the FAST code and described in this research. This platform allows engineers working in this industry to directly consider interaction between seismic and other environmental loads for turbines. This paper details the practical application and theory of this platform and provides examples for the use of different capabilities. The platform is then used to show the suitable earthquake and operational load combination with the implicit consideration of aerodynamic damping by estimating appropriate load factors.

PREDICTION OF THE AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINES IN CONDITION OF UNIFORM WIND

The classical momentum-blade element theory is improved by using the empirical formula while part of rotor blades enters into the turbulent wake state, and the performance of a horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) at all speed ratios can be predicted. By using an improved version of the so-called secant method, the convergent solutions of the system of two-dimensional equations concerning the induced velocity factors a and a' are guaranteed. Besides, a solving method of multiple solutions for a and a' is proposed and discussed. The method provided in this paper can be used for computing the aerodynamic performance of HAWTs both ofrlow solidity and of high solidity. The calculated results coincide well with the experimental data.

Effect of Yaw Angle on Large Scale Three-blade Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

Offshore Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines(HAWT)are used globally as a source of clean and renewable energy.Turbine efficiency can be improved by optimizing the geometry of the turbine blades.Turbines are generally designed in a way that its orientation is adjustable to ensure the wind direction is aligned with the axis of the turbine shaft.The deflection angle from this position is defined as yaw angle of the turbine.Understanding the effects of the yaw angle on the wind turbine performance is important for the turbine safety and performance analysis.In this study,performance of a yawed HAWT is studied by computational fluid dynamics.The wind flow around the turbine is simulated by solving the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations using software ANSYS Fluent.The principal aim of this study is to quantify the yaw angle on the efficiency of the turbine and to check the accuracy of existing empirical formula.A three-bladed 100-m diameter prototype HAWT was analysed through comprehensive Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)simulations.The turbine efficiency reaches its maximum value of 33.9%at 0°yaw angle and decreases with the increase of yaw angle.It was proved that the cosine law can estimate the turbine efficiency with a yaw angle with an error less 10%when the yaw angle is between-30°and 30°.The relative error of the cosine law increase at larger yaw angles because of the power is reduced significantly.

Criterion of aerodynamic performance of large-scale offshore horizontal axis wind turbines

With the background of offshore wind energy projects, this paper studies aerodynamic performance and geometric characteristics of large capacity wind turbine rotors （1 to 10 MW）, and the main characteristic parameters such as the rated wind speed, blade tip speed, and rotor solidity. We show that the essential criterion of a high- performance wind turbine is a highest possible annual usable energy pattern factor and a smallest possible dimension, capturing the maximum wind energy and producing the maximum annual power. The influence of the above-mentioned three parameters on the pattern factor and rotor geometry of wind turbine operated in China＇s offshore meteoro- logical environment is investigated. The variation patterns of aerodynamic and geometric parameters are obtained, analyzed, and compared with each other. The present method for aerodynamic analysis and its results can form a basis for evaluating aerodynamic performance of large-scale offshore wind turbine rotors.

The Effects of Turbulence Intensity and Tip Speed Ratio on the Coherent Structure of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine Wake:A Wind Tunnel Experiment

The evolution laws of the large-eddy coherent structure of the wind turbine wake have been evaluated via wind tunnel experiments under uniform and turbulent inflow conditions.The spatial correlation coefficients,the turbulence integral scales and power spectrum are obtained at different tip speed ratios(TSRs)based on the time-resolved particle image velocity(TR-PIV)technique.The results indicate that the large-eddy coherent structures are more likely to dissipate with an increase in turbulence intensity and TSR.Furthermore,the spatial correlation of the longitudinal pulsation velocity is greater than its axial counterpart,resulting into a wake turbulence dominated by the longitudinal pulsation.With an increase of turbulence intensity,the integral scale of the axial turbulence increases,meanwhile,its longitudinal counterpart decreases.Owing to an increase in TSR,the integral scale of axial turbulence decreases,whereas,that of the longitudinal turbulence increases.By analyzing the wake power spectrum,it is found that the turbulent pulsation kinetic energy of the wake structure is mainly concentrated in the low-frequency vortex region.The dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy increases with an increase of turbulence intensity and the turbulence is transported and dissipated on a smaller scale vortex,thus promoting the recovery of wake.

Analysis of Near-Wake Deflection Characteristics of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Tower under Yaw State

The yaw of the horizontal axis wind turbine results in the deflection of the wake flow field of the tower.The reasonable layout of wind farm can reduce the power loss of the downstream wind turbine generators due to the blocking effect of the upstream wake flow and increase the output power of the whole wind farm.However,there is still much space for further research.In this paper,experimental research is conducted on the near-wake deflection characteristics of wind turbine tower under yaw state,expecting the effect of throwing away a brick in order to get a gem.In the low-turbulence wind tunnel test,regarding the most unfavorable position where the rotating blades coincide with the tower,Particle image velocimetry(PIV)technology is used to test the instantaneous velocity field and output power and analyze experimental data at four different yaw angles,different inflow velocities and heights.Meanwhile,in order to quantitatively analyze the laws on wake deflection,the radon transformation is used to analyze the velocity contour for calculating the wake direction angle,and the results show high reliability.The comprehensive experimental results indicate that the near-wake flow field of the tower obviously deflects towards a side in the horizontal plane.With the increase of the yaw angle,the deflection angle of the wake flow field further increases,and the recovery of wake velocity accelerates.The closer to the blade root,the more complex the flow is,and the influence of the blade on the near wake of the tower is gradually weakened.The change laws on the wake direction angle with the yaw angle and the blade spanwise direction are obtained.The experiment in this paper can provide guidance for layout optimization of wind farm,and the obtained data can provide a scientific basis for the research on performance prediction of horizontal axis wind turbine.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Multi-Bladed Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Rotor

The principal objective of this work was to investigate the 3D flow field around a multi-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) rotor and to investigate its performance characteristics. The aerodynamic performance of this novel rotor design was evaluated by means of a Computational Fluid Dynamics commercial package. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations were selected to model the physics of the incompressible Newtonian fluid around the blades. The Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model was chosen for the assessment of the 3D flow behavior as it had widely used in other HAWT studies. The pressure-based simulation was done on a model representing one-ninth of the rotor using a 40-degree periodicity in a single moving reference frame system. Analyzing the wake flow behavior over a wide range of wind speeds provided a clear vision of this novel rotor configuration. From the analysis, it was determined that the flow becomes accelerated in outer wake region downstream of the rotor and by placing a multi-bladed rotor with a larger diameter behind the forward rotor resulted in an acceleration of this wake flow which resulted in an increase the overall power output of the wind machine.

Decoupling Adaptive Sliding Mode Observer Design for Wind Turbines Subject to Simultaneous Faults in Sensors and Actuators

This paper proposes an adaptive sliding mode observer(ASMO)-based approach for wind turbines subject to simultaneous faults in sensors and actuators.The proposed approach enables the simultaneous detection of actuator and sensor faults without the need for any redundant hardware components.Additionally,wind speed variations are considered as unknown disturbances,thus eliminating the need for accurate measurement or estimation.The proposed ASMO enables the accurate estimation and reconstruction of the descriptor states and disturbances.The proposed design implements the principle of separation to enable the use of the nominal controller during faulty conditions.Fault tolerance is achieved by implementing a signal correction scheme to recover the nominal behavior.The performance of the proposed approach is validated using a 4.8 MW wind turbine benchmark model subject to various faults.Monte-Carlo analysis is also carried out to further evaluate the reliability and robustness of the proposed approach in the presence of measurement errors.Simplicity,ease of implementation and the decoupling property are among the positive features of the proposed approach.

Design and Parametric Investigation of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

This research focuses on design and calculations for the horizontal axis wind turbine to fulfill energy demands at small scales in Pakistan. This is the design to produce about 5 kilowatts of electricity to share the load of average home appliances. Area chosen for this research is Pasni, Balochistan in Pakistan to build the wind turbine for electricity. Design values are approximated by appropriate formulas of wind energy design. In current research, turbine blade profile is designed by blade element momentum(BEM) theory. Warlock wind turbine calculator is used to verify the design parameters like wind speed, tip speed ratio(TSR) and efficiency factor.Effects of wind speed, wind power, TSR, pitch angle, blade tip angle, number of blades, blade design and tower height on power coefficient are analyzed in this research. Maximum power coefficient is achieved at a designed velocity of 6 m/s. Design analysis is also performed on simulation software ANSYS Fluent. It is observed that designed velocity parameter of this research is very suitable for the turbine blade, so blade designing is perfect according to wind speed range.

Wind Tunnel Study on Wind and Turbulence Intensity Profiles in Wind Turbine Wake

In recent years, there has been a rapid development of the wind farms in Japan. It becomes very important to investigate the wind turbine arrangement in wind farm, in order that the wake of one wind turbine does not to interfere with the flow in other wind turbines. In such a case, in order to achieve the highest possible efficiency from the wind, and to install as many as possible wind turbines within a limited area, it becomes a necessity to study the mutual interference of the wake developed by wind turbines. However, there is no report related to the effect of the turbulence intensity of the external flow on the wake behind a wind turbine generated in the wind tunnel. In this paper, the measurement results of the averaged wind profile and turbulence intensity profile in the wake in the wind tunnel are shown when the turbulence intensity of the external wind was changed. The wind tunnel experiment is performed with 500mm-diameter two-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine and the wind velocity in wake is measured by an I-type hot wire probe. As a result, it is clarified that high turbulence intensities enable to the entrainment of the main flow and the wake and to recover quickly the velocity in the wake.

Study on the Rotor Design Method for a Small Propeller-Type Wind Turbine

Small propeller-type wind turbines have a low Reynolds number,limiting the number of usable airfoil materials.Thus,their design method is not sufBciently established,and their performance is often low.The ultimate goal of this research is to establish high-performance design guidelines and design methods for small propeller-type wind turbines.To that end,we designed two rotors:Rotor A,based on the rotor optimum design method from the blade element momentum theory,and Rotor B,in which the chord length of the tip is extended and the chord length distribution is linearized.We examined performance characteristics and flow fields of the two rotors through wind tunnel experiments and numerical analysis.Our results revealed that the maximum output tip speed ratio of Rotor B shifted lower than that of Rotor A,but the maximum output coefficient increased by approximately 38.7%.Rotors A and B experienced a large-scale separation on the hub side,which extended to the mean in Rotor A.This difference in separation had an impact on the significant decrease in Rotor A's output compared to the design value and the increase in Rotor B's output compared to Rotor A.