Simulating Dynamical Behaviour of Wind Power Structures

Abstract: The workin this thesis deals with the development of anaeroelastic simulation tool for horizontal axis wind turbineapplications.Horizontal axiswind turbines can experience significanttime varying aerodynamic loads, potentially causing adverseeffects on structures, mechanical components, and powerproduction. The need of computational and experimentalprocedures for investigating aeroelastic stability and dynamicresponse have increased as wind turbines become lighter andmore flexible.A finite element model for simulation of the dynamicresponse of horizontal axis wind turbines has been developed.The simulations are performed using the commercial finiteelement software SOLVIA, which is a program developed forgeneral analyses, linear as well as non-linear, static as wellas dynamic. The aerodynamic model, used to transform the windflow field to loads on the blades, is a Blade- Element/Momentummodel. The aerodynamic code is developed by FFA (TheAeronautical Research Institute of Sweden) and is astate-of-the-art code incorporating a number of extensions tothe Blade-Element/Momentum formulation. SOSIS-W, developed byTeknikgruppen AB was used to develop wind time series formodelling different wind conditions.The model is rather general, and different configurations ofthe structural model and various type of wind conditions couldeasily be simulated. The model is primarily intended for use asa research tool when influences of specific dynamic effects areinvestigated.Simulation results for the three-bladed wind turbine Danwin180 kW are presented as a verification example.Keywords:aeroelastic modelling, rotor aerodynamics,structural dynamics, wind turbine, AERFORCE, SOSIS-W,SOLVIA