Nonlinear Flap-Wise Vibration Characteristics ofWind Turbine Blades Based onMulti-Scale AnalysisMethod

This work presents a novel approach to achieve nonlinear vibration response based on the Hamilton principle.We chose the 5-MW reference wind turbine which was established by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL),to research the effects of the nonlinear flap-wise vibration characteristics.The turbine wheel is simplified by treating the blade of a wind turbine as an Euler-Bernoulli beam,and the nonlinear flap-wise vibration characteristics of the wind turbine blades are discussed based on the simplification first.Then,the blade’s large-deflection flap-wise vibration governing equation is established by considering the nonlinear term involving the centrifugal force.Lastly,it is truncated by the Galerkin method and analyzed semi-analytically using the multi-scale analysis method,and numerical simulations are carried out to compare the simulation results of finite elements with the numerical simulation results using Campbell diagram analysis of blade vibration.The results indicated that the rotational speed of the impeller has a significant impact on blade vibration.When the wheel speed of 12.1 rpm and excitation amplitude of 1.23 the maximum displacement amplitude of the blade has increased from 0.72 to 3.16.From the amplitude-frequency curve,it can be seen that the multi-peak characteristic of blade amplitude frequency is under centrifugal nonlinearity.Closed phase trajectories in blade nonlinear vibration,exhibiting periodic motion characteristics,are found through phase diagrams and Poincare section diagrams.

Stiffness Degradation Modeling for Composite Wind Turbine Blades Based on Full-Scale Fatigue Testing

In order to provide more insights into the damage propagation composite wind turbine blades(blade)under cyclic fatigue loading,a stiffness degradation model for blade is proposed based on the full-scale fatigue testing of a blade.A novel non-linear fatigue damage accumulation model is proposed using the damage assessment theories of composite laminates for the first time.Then,a stiffness degradation model is established based on the correlation of fatigue damage and residual stiffness of the composite laminates.Finally,a stiffness degradation model for the blade is presented based on the full-scale fatigue testing.The scientific rationale of the proposed stiffness model of blade is verified by using full-scale fatigue test data of blade with a total length of 52.5 m.The results indicate that the proposed stiffness degradation model of the blade agrees well with the fatigue testing results of this blade.This work provides a basis for evaluating the fatigue damage and lifetime of blade under cyclic fatigue loading.

Thermal Analysis of Turbine Blades with Thermal Barrier Coatings Using Virtual Wall Thickness Method

Avirtual wall thicknessmethod is developed to simulate the temperature field of turbine bladeswith thermal barrier coatings(TBCs),to simplify the modeling process and improve the calculation efficiency.The results show that the virtualwall thickness method can improve themesh quality by 20%,reduce the number ofmeshes by 76.7%and save the calculation time by 35.5%,compared with the traditional real wall thickness method.The average calculation error of the two methods is between 0.21%and 0.93%.Furthermore,the temperature at the blade leading edge is the highest and the average temperature of the blade pressure surface is higher than that of the suction surface under a certain service condition.The blade surface temperature presents a high temperature at both ends and a low temperature in themiddle height when the temperature of incoming gas is uniformand constant.The thermal insulation effect of TBCs is the worst near the air film hole,and the best at the blade leading edge.According to the calculated temperature field of the substrate-coating system,the highest thermal insulation temperature of the TC layer is 172.01 K,and the thermal insulation proportions of TC,TGO and BC are 93.55%,1.54%and 4.91%,respectively.

Damage Identification of Wind Turbine Blades–A Brief Review

The increasing size of these blades of wind turbines emphasizes the need for reliable monitoring and maintenance.This brief review explores the detection and analysis of damage in wind turbine blades.The study highlights various techniques,including acoustic emission analysis,strain signal monitoring,and vibration analysis,as effective approaches for damage detection.Vibration analysis,in particular,shows promise for fault identification by analyzing changes in dynamic characteristics.Damage indices based on modal properties,such as natural frequencies,mode shapes,and curvature,are discussed.

Videometric research on deformation measurement of large-scale wind turbine blades

Utilization of wind energy is a promising way to generate power,and wind turbine blades play a key role in collecting the wind energy effectively.This paper attempts to measure the deformation parameter of wind turbine blades in mechanics experiments using a videometric method. In view that the blades experience small buckling deformation and large integral deformation simultaneously, we proposed a parallel network measurement(PNM) method including the key techniques such as camera network construction,camera calibration,distortion correction,the semi-automatic high-precision extraction of targets,coordinate systems unification,and bundle adjustment,etc. The relatively convenient construction method of the measuring system can provide an abundant measuring content,a wide measuring range and post processing.The experimental results show that the accuracy of the integral deformation measurement is higher than 0.5 mm and that of the buckling deformation measurement higher than 0.1mm.

An Advanced Control Strategy for Dual-Actuator Driving System in Full-Scale Fatigue Test of Wind Turbine Blades

A new dual-actuator fatigue loading system of wind turbine blades was designed.Compared with the traditional pendulum loading mode,the masses in this system only moved linearly along the loading direction to increase the exciting force.However,the two actuators and the blade constituted a complicated non-linear energy transferring system,which led to the non-synchronization of actuators.On-site test results showed that the virtual spindle synchronous strategy commonly used in synchronous control was undesirable and caused the instability of the blade’s amplitude eventually.A cross-coupled control strategy based on the active disturbance rejection algorithm was proposed.Firstly,a control system model was built according to the synchronization error and tracking error.Furthermore,based on arranging the transition process,estimating the system state and error feedback,and compensating disturbance,an active disturbance rejection controller was designed by adopting the optimal control function.Finally,on-site test results showed that the cross-coupled control strategy based on the active disturbance rejection algorithm could ensure the synchronization of two actuators.The maximum speed synchronization error of the two motors was less than 16 RPM,the displacement synchronization error of the two actuators was less than 0.25 mm and approaching zero after 4 seconds,and the peak value of vibration of the blade was less than 5 mm,which satisfied the fatigue test requirement.

Geometric analysis of investment casting turbine blades based on digital measurement data

A turbine blade is one of the key components of the aero-engine. Its geometric shape should be inspected carefully in the production stage to ensure that it meets the tolerance specification. In the present paper, an approach for investment turbine blade geometric shape analysis based on multi-source digital measurement is presented. Its key technologies, such as measurement data collection, blade model reliable alignment, geometric shape deviation fast calculation and visualization, were investigated. Actual measurement data from a structure light measurement device and a Coordinate Measuring Machine(CMM) for turbine blades were used to validate the presented method. The experimental results show that the proposed method is accurate, quick and effective to implement.

Hashin Failure Theory Based Damage Assessment Methodology of Composite Tidal Turbine Blades and Implications for the Blade Design

A damage assessment methodology based on the Hashin failure theory for glass fiber reinforced polymer(GFRP)composite blade is proposed. The typical failure mechanisms including the fiber tension/compression and matrix tension/compression are considered to describe the damage behaviors. To give the flapwise and edgewise loading along the blade span, the Blade Element Momentum Theory(BEMT) is adopted. In conjunction with the hydrodynamic analysis, the structural analysis of the composite blade is cooperatively performed with the Hashin damage model. The damage characteristics of the composite blade, under normal and extreme operational conditions,are comparatively analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate that the matrix tension damage is the most significant failure mode which occurs in the mid-span of the blade. The blade internal configurations including the box-beam, Ibeam, left-C beam and right-C beam are compared and analyzed. The GFRP and carbon fiber reinforced polymer(CFRP) are considered and combined. Numerical results show that the I-beam is the best structural type. The structural performance of composite tidal turbine blades could be improved by combining the GFRP and CFRP structure considering the damage and cost-effectiveness synthetically.

R & D OF CAST SUPERALLOYS AND PROCESSING FOR GAS TURBINE BLADES IN BIAM

Research and development of cast superalloys and processing for turbine blades in BIAM during the last 35 years have been reviewed briefly in this paper.

Research on the Deformation of Turbine Blades at Machining

Along with the recent expansion of demand for electricity, the production of steam turbine blades has increased, and various materials forged of 12Cr ferritic heat-resistant types of steel have become widely used for this purpose. Although this material seems to be an excellent choice as heat-resistant steel, it requires a post-correction process for deformation after machining and thus lowers productivity. Therefore, we started basic experimental research, and through a series of tests, we found that 12Cr steel is a sticky material;the residual stresses after machining concentrate in the vicinity of the surface;and this influences the deformation of blades.

A Compact Laser Shearography System for On-Site Robotic Inspection of Wind Turbine Blades

Shearography is an optical technique in the field of nondestructive evaluation(NDE)of various materials.Its main advantages are that it is noncontact type and can cover a large area in a single inspection.As a result,although it has been widely acknowledged as an effective technique particularly for NDE of composite materials to detect subsurface defects such as delamination,disbond,cracks,and impact damages,the use of shearography for on-site inspection of wind turbine blades(WTBs)has not been reported.This is due to wind causing structural vibration in the WTB.The solution in this paper is to make the shearography sit on the WTB during inspection when the WTB is parked,so that the relative motion between the shearography and the WTB is minimized within the tolerance of the shearography system.The ultimate goal of the solution is to enable a robot-assisted shearography system to inspect the WTB on-site.This paper presents the research work on a new shearography design for integration with a robotic climber for on-site WTB inspection.The approach is tested and evaluated in experimental settings,and a comparative assessment of the approach with other robotic NDE techniques is carried out.The results demonstrate the potential benefits and suitability of the approach for on-site robotic inspection of WTBs.

Nonlinear uncertainty impact of geometric variations on aerodynamic performance of low-pressure turbine blades with ultra-high loading under extreme operational conditions

Uncertainty impact of random geometric variations on the aerodynamic performance of low-pressure turbine blades is considerable,which is further amplified by the current ultra-high-lift design trend for weight reduction.Therefore,this uncertainty impact on ultra-highly loaded blades under extreme operational conditions near the margins with potential large-scale open separation is focused on in this study.It is demonstrated that this impact is significant,unfavourable,and nonlinear,which is clearly severer under extreme conditions.In addition to the overall attenuation and notable scattering of specific performance,the operational margins with open separation are also notably scattered with great risk of significant reduction.This scattering and nonlinearity are dominated by the variations in leading-edge thickness.The thinning of leading edge triggers local transition,enhancing downstream friction and reducing resistance to open separation,which is further exacerbated by operational deterioration.However,the opposite thickening yields less benefit,implying nonlinearity.This unfavourable impact highlights the need for robust aerodynamic design,where both a safer operational condition and a more robust blade are indispensable,i.e.,a compromise among performance,weight,and robustness.Besides the necessary limitation of loading levels,a mid-loaded design is recommended to reduce adverse pressure gradients in both the leading edge and rear region of the suction side,which helps to decrease the susceptibility of the transition and open separation to random perturbations.Similar improvements can also be achieved by appropriately thickening the leading edge.

Comparative Study on Different Methods for Prediction of Thermal Insulation Performance of Thermal Barrier Coating Used on Turbine Blades

As turbine inlet temperature gets higher and higher,thermal barrier coating(TBC) is more and more widely used in turbine blades.For turbine blades with TBC,it is of great significance to evaluate the temperature distribution of its substrate metal quickly and accurately,especially during the design stage.With different degrees of simplification such as whether to consider the change of the geometric size of the fluid domain by TBC and whether to consider the planar heat conduction in TBC,three different methods used in conjugate heat transfer(CHT) simulation to model the TBC of the turbine blades have been developed and widely used by researchers.However,little research has been conducted to investigate the influence of the three methods on the temperature distribution of turbine blade.To fill this gap,three geometric models were designed.They are a solid conduction model with a substrate metal layer and a TBC layer,a transonic turbine vane with internal cooling and TBC,and a plate cylindrical film hole cooling model with TBC.Different methods were used in these geometric models and their differences were carefully analyzed and discussed.The result shows that for the conduction model used in this paper,with the same TBC surface temperature distribution,the difference between the three methods is very small and can be ignored.For a transonic turbine vane with internal cooling,regarding the local maximum temperature of the substrate-TBC interface,the largest difference between the method in which TBC is considered as a thermal resistance or a virtual layer of cells and the method in which three-dimensional heat conduction equation of TBC is solved occurs at the trailing edge.The difference near the leading edge is below 2K.When employed to the film cooling model,the difference of the laterally averaged temperature of the substrate-TBC interface can be 8 K which is mainly due to the change of the length to diameter ratio of the film cooling hole by TBC.If the substrate thickness is reduced by the thickness of TBC when three-dimensional heat conduction equation of TBC is solved,the temperature difference between the three methods will be quite limited.

Uncertainty analysis of measured geometric variations in turbine blades and impact on aerodynamic performance

Inevitable geometric variations significantly affect the performance of turbines or even that of entire engines;thus,it is necessary to determine their actual characteristics and accurately estimate their impact on performance.In this study,based on 1781 measured profiles of a typical turbine blade,the statistical characteristics of the geometric variations and the uncertainty impact are analyzed,and some commonly used uncertainty modelling methods based on Principal-Component Analysis(PCA)are verified.The geometric variations are found to be evident,asymmetric,and non-uniform,and the non-normality of the random distributions is non-negligible.The performance is notably affected,which is manifested as an overall offset,a notable scattering,and significant deterioration in several extreme cases.Additionally,it is demonstrated that the PCA reconstruction model is effective in characterizing major uncertainty characteristics of the geometric variations and their impact on the performance with almost the first 10 PCA modes.Based on a reasonable profile error and mean geometric deviation,the Gaussian assumption and stochasticprocess-based model are also found to be effective in predicting the mean values and standard deviations of the performance variations.However,they fail to predict the probability of some extreme cases with high loss.Finally,a Chi-square-based correction model is proposed to compensate for this deficiency.The present work can provide a useful reference for uncertainty analysis of the impact of geometric variations,and the corresponding uncertainty design of turbine blades.

Research on Fatigue Damage Behavior of Main Beam Sub-Structure of Composite Wind Turbine Blade

Given the difficulty in accurately evaluating the fatigue performance of large composite wind turbine blades(referred to as blades),this paper takes the main beam structure of the blade with a rectangular cross-sectionas the simulation object and establishes a composite laminate rectangular beam structure that simultaneouslyincludes the flange,web,and adhesive layer,referred to as the blade main beam sub-structure specimen,throughthe definition of blade sub-structures.This paper examines the progressive damage evolution law of the compositelaminate rectangular beam utilizing an improved 3D Hashin failure criterion,cohesive zone model,B-K failurecriterion,and computer simulation technology.Under static loading,the layup angle of the anti-shear web hasa close relationship with the static load-carrying capacity of the composite laminate rectangular beam;under fatigueloading,the fatigue damage will first occur in the lower flange adhesive area of the whole composite laminaterectangular beam and ultimately result in the fracture failure of the entire structure.These results provide a theoreticalreference and foundation for evaluating and predicting the fatigue performance of the blade main beamstructure and even the full-size blade.

An experimental investigation on the trailing edge cooling of turbine blades

An experimental study was conducted to quantify the flow characteristics of the wall jets pertinent to trailing edge cooling of turbine blades.A high-resolution stereoscopic particle image velocimetry(PIV)system was used to conduct detailed flow field measurements to quantitatively visualize the evolution of the unsteady vortices and turbulent flow structures in the cooling wall jet streams and to quantify the dynamic mixing process between the cooling jet stream and the mainstream flows.The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the adiabatic cooling effectiveness maps measured by using pressure sensitive paint(PSP)technique to elucidate underlying physics in order to explore/optimize design paradigms for improved cooling effectiveness to protect the critical portions of turbine blades from harsh environments.

Research on the Follow-Up Control Strategy of Biaxial Fatigue Test of Wind Turbine Blade Based on Electromagnetic Excitation

Aiming at the drift problem that the tracking control of the actual load relative to the target load during the electromagnetic excitation biaxial fatigue test of wind turbine blades is easy to drift,a biaxial fatigue testingmachine for electromagnetic excitation is designed,and the following strategy of the actual load and the target load is studied.A Fast Transversal Recursive Least Squares algorithm based on fuzzy logic(Fuzzy FTRLS)is proposed to develop a fatigue loading following dynamic strategy,which adjusts the forgetting factor in the algorithmthrough fuzzy logic to overcome the contradiction between convergence accuracy and convergence speed and solve the phenomenon of amplitude overshoot and phase lag of the actual load relative to the target load.Combined with the previous research results,a simulation model was constructed to verify the strategy’s effectiveness.Field tests were carried out to verify its follow-up effect.The results showthat the tracking error of flapwise and edgewise direction iswithin 4%,which has better robustness and dynamic and static performance than the traditional Recursive Least Squares(RLS)algorithm.

A review of recent studies on rotating internal cooling for gas turbine blades

Gas turbines have been used extensively for aircraft and marine propulsions as well as land-based power generation because of their high thermal efficiency and large power to weight ratios.To further increase the thermal efficiency,numerous prior researches on gas turbine blade internal cooling have been intensively carried out,majorly under stationary conditions.However,the stationary studies neglect the effects of Coriolis and buoyancy forces,which should change the velocity,turbulence and temperature distribution under rotating conditions.To elucidate the rotational effects on gas turbine internal cooling,the extensive results collected from recent investigations are discussed,which include the rotation and buoyancy effects on the rib turbulated cooling,pin fin cooling,jet impingement cooling,dimple/protrusion cooling,latticework cooling as well as swirl cooling.The rotational effects on the friction factors and the most employed experimental and numerical methods are also presented.Moreover,recommendations for future research are outlined.Therefore,this review article provides extensive literature information for the design of the next-generation high-efficiency internal cooling for rotating turbine blades.

Effect of laser shock peening on combined low- and high-cycle fatigue life of casting and forging turbine blades

Laser shock peening （LSP） is a novel effective surface treatment method to improve the fatigue performance of turbine blades. To study the effect of LSP on combined low- and high-cycle fatigue （CCF） life of turbine blades, the CCF tests were conducted at elevated temperatures on two types of full-scale turbine blades, which were made of K403 by casting and GH4133B by forging. Probabilistic analysis was conducted to find out the effect of LSP on fatigue life of those two kinds of blades. The results indicated that LSP extended the CCF life of both casting blades and forging blades obviously, and the effect of LSP on casting blades was more evident; besides, a threshold vibration stress existed for both casting blades and forging blades, and the CCF life tended to be extended by LSP only when the vibration stress was below the threshold vibra- tion stress. Further study of fractography was also conducted, indicating that due to the presence of compressive residual stress and refined grains induced by LSP, the crack initiation sources in LSP blades were obviously less, and the life of LSP blades was also longer; since the compressive residual stress was released by plastic deformation, LSP had no effect or adverse effect on CCF life of blade when the vibration stress of blade was above the threshold vibration stress.

Design Methods and Strategies for Forward and Inverse Problems of Turbine Blades Based on Machine Learning

To study the feasibility of using machine learning technology to solve the forward problem(prediction of aerodynamic parameters)and the inverse problem(prediction of geometric parameters)of turbine blades,this paper built a forward problem model based on backpropagation artificial neural networks(BP-ANNs)and an inverse problem model based on radial basis function artificial neural networks(RBF-ANNs).The S2(a stream surface obtained by extending a radial curve in turbo blades)calculation program was used to generate the dataset for single-stage turbo blades,and the back propagation algorithm was used to train the model.The parameters of five blade sections in a single-stage turbine were selected as inputs of the forward problem model,including stagger angle,inlet geometric angle,outlet geometric angle,wedge angle of leading edge pressure side,wedge angle of leading edge suction side,wedge angle of trailing edge,rear bending angle,and leading edge diameter.The outputs are efficiency,power,mass flow,relative exit Mach number,absolute exit Mach number,relative exit flow angle,absolute exit flow angle and reaction degree,which are eight aerodynamic parameters.The inputs and outputs of the inverse problem model are the opposite of that of the forward problem model.The models can accurately predict the aerodynamic parameters and geometric parameters,and the mean square errors(MSEs)of the forward problem test set and the inverse problem test set are 0.001 and 0.00035,respectively.This study shows that machine learning technology based on neural networks can be flexibly applied to the design of forward and inverse problems of turbine blades,and the models built by this method have practical application value in regression prediction problems.