• Wind and Structures
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.471-485
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• 2021

Onshore wind turbines may experience substantially different wind loads depending on their working conditions, i.e. rotation velocity of rotor blades, incoming freestream wind velocity, pitch angle of rotor blades, and yaw angle of the wind-turbine tower. In the present study, aerodynamic loads acting on a horizontal axis wind turbine were accordingly quantified for the high tip speed ratio (TSR) at high yaw angles because these conditions have previously not been adequately addressed. This was analyzed experimentally on a small-scale wind-turbine model in a boundary layer wind tunnel. The wind-tunnel simulation of the neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) developing above a flat terrain was generated using the Counihan approach. The ABL was simulated to achieve the conditions of a wind-turbine model operating in similar inflow conditions to those of a prototype wind turbine situated in the lower atmosphere, which is another important aspect of the present work. The ABL and wind-turbine simulation length scale factors were the same (S=300) in order to satisfy the Jensen similarity criterion. Aerodynamic loads experienced by the wind-turbine model subjected to the ABL simulation were studied based on the high frequency force balance (HFFB) measurements. Emphasis was put on the thrust force and the bending moment because these two load components have previously proven to be dominant compared to other load components. The results indicate several important findings. The loads were substantially higher for TSR=10 compared to TSR=5.6. In these conditions, a considerable load reduction was achieved by pitching the rotor blades. For the blade pitch angle at 90°, the loads were ten times lower than the loads of the rotating wind-turbine model. For the blade pitch angle at 12°, the loads were at 50% of the rotating wind-turbine model. The loads were reduced by up to 40% through the yawing of the wind-turbine model, which was observed both for the rotating and the parked wind-turbine model.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.955-960
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• 2001

In order to develop an efficient turbine for wave energy conversion suitable for actual ocean conditions, a new type of the air turbine with staggered blades has been investigated experimentally. Experiments have been carried out under steady flow conditions. Both the running and starting characteristics under sinusoidally oscillating flow conditions are simulated by a CFD method using a quasi-steady analysis. It is known that the air turbine with staggered blades gives a better performance compared with conventional Wells turbine, and a proper design factor of the air turbine is discussed for the setting angle of the rotor.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.877-884
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• 2006

The objective of this study is to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a vertical axis wind turbine blade as the basic study of a design of a vertical axis wind turbine. The lift and drag coefficients of the various shape of the vortical axis wind turbine blades are analyzed and compared using the CFD code Fluent. To validate the numerical analysis, the predicted results of the Fluent are compared with those of the Xfoil code and the experimental results. We conclude that the program Fluent can be used to predict the aerodynamics of the wind turbine blade. By comparing the predicted results of the aerodynamic characteristics of the different shape of the blades, an appropriate shape of the blade is suggested to design the vortical axis wind turbine blade.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.26-33
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• 2010

A multi-MW wind turbine is a huge mechanical structure, of which the rotor diameter is more or less than 100 m. Rotor blades experience unsymmetric mechanical loads caused by the interaction of incoming wind with the tower and wind shear effect. These mechanical loads are transferred to the entire structure of the wind turbine and are known as the major reasons for shortening the life span of the wind turbine. Therefore, as the size of wind turbine gets bigger, the mitigation of mechanical loads becomes more important issue in wind turbine control system design. In this paper, a concept of an individual pitch control(IPC), which minimizes the mechanical loads of rotor blades, is introduced, and simulation results using IPC are discussed.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.107-111
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• 2017

The reliability on high cycle fatigue damage mechanism for new blades manufactured by reverse-engineering is demonstrated by success-run test. Turbine blades always experience various dynamic loads in turbine operation, as well as being in resonance condition and forced by fluid-induced vibrations mostly during run-up/down, which may accumulate high cycle damage to the blades. The accidents caused by blade failure especially incur not only a lot of troubles to the machinery but also huge financial losses. Therefore it is necessary to verify the reliability of blades in advance for the safe use. The success run test for the reliability demonstration is designed and performed for the new blades using the technique known as resonant high cycle fatigue testing.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.647-670
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• 2013

The paper presents a numerical approach to study of fluid flow characteristics and to predict performance of wind turbines. The numerical model is based on Finite-volume method (FVM) discretization of unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations. The movement of turbine blades is modeled using moving mesh technique. The turbulence is modeled using commonly used turbulence models: Renormalization Group (RNG) k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model and the standard k-${\varepsilon}$ and k-${\omega}$ turbulence models. The model is validated with the experimental data over a large range of tip-speed to wind ratio (TSR) and blade pitch angles. In order to demonstrate the use of numerical method as a tool for designing wind turbines, two dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) simulations are carried out to study the flow through a small scale Darrieus type H-rotor Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The flows predictions are used to determine the performance of the turbine. The turbine consists of 3-symmetrical NACA0022 blades. A number of simulations are performed for a range of approaching angles and wind speeds. This numerical study highlights the concerns with the self-starting capabilities of the present VAWT turbine. However results also indicate that self-starting capabilities of the turbine can be increased when the mounted angle of attack of the blades is increased. The 2-D simulations using the presented model can successfully be used at preliminary stage of turbine design to compare performance of the turbine for different design and operating parameters, whereas 3-D studies are preferred for the final design.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2005

A fundamental understanding of the flow around the wind turbine is important to investigate the performance of new type of wind turbine. This study presents the simulation of three dimensional flow fields around the Darius wind turbine as an example. Incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are used for this simulation. The rotating coordinate system that rotates in the same speed of the turbine is used in order to simplify the boundary condition on the blades. Additionally, the boundary fitted coordinate system is employed in order to express the shape of the blades precisely. Fractional step method is used to solve the basic equations. Third order upwind scheme is chosen for the approximation of the non-linear terms since it can compute the flow field stably even at high Reynolds number without any turbulence models. The flow fields obtained in this study are highly complex due to the three dimensionality and are visualized effectively by using the technique of the computer graphics.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.148-154
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• 2008

The Wells turbine rotor consists of several symmetric airfoil blades arranged around a central hub, and the stagger angle is 90 degrees. These characteristics simplify the total construction of OWC type wave energy converters. Although the Wells turbine is simple, the turbine produces a complicated flow field due to the peculiar arrangement of blades, which can rotate in the same direction irrespective of the oscillating airflow. In order to understand these flows, flow visualization is carried out with an oil-film method in the water tunnel. This research aims to analyze the mechanism of the 3-D flows around the turbine with the flow visualization. The flow visualization explained the influence of attack angle, the difference between fan-shaped and rectangular wings, and the sweep angle.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.677-691
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• 2015

In this study, the geometrical setup of a turbine blade is tracked. A research-scale rotating turbine blade system is setup with a single 3-axes accelerometer mounted on one of the blades. The turbine system is rotated by a controlled motor. The tilt and rolling angles of the rotating blade under operating conditions are determined from the response measurement of the single accelerometer. Data acquisition is achieved using a prototype wireless sensing system. First, the Rodrigues' rotation formula and an optimization algorithm are used to track the blade rolling angle and pitching angles of the turbine blade system. In addition, the blade flapwise natural frequency is identified by removing the rotation-related response induced by gravity and centrifuge force. To verify the result of calculations, a covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification method (SSI-COV) is applied to the vibration measurements of the blades to determine the system natural frequencies. It is thus proven that by using a single sensor and through a series of coordinate transformations and the Rodrigues' rotation formula, the geometrical setup of the blade can be tracked and the blade flapwise vibration frequency can be determined successfully.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.233-254
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• 2018

In order to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, a policy to increase the production capacity of wind turbine is set up. This can be achieved with increasing the dimensions of offshore wind turbine blades. However, this increase in size implies serious problems of stability and durability. Considering the cost of large turbines and financial consequences of their premature failure, it is imperative to carry out numerical simulations over long periods. Here, an energy-conserving time-stepping scheme is proposed in order to ensure the satisfying computation of long-term response. The proposed scheme is implemented for three-dimensional solid based on Biot strain measures, which is used for modeling flexible blades. The simulations are performed at full spatial scale. For reliable design process, the wind loads should be represented as realistically as possible, including the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) dynamic effects on wind turbine blades. However, full-scale 3D FSI simulations for long-term wind loading remain of prohibitive computation cost. Thus, the model to quantify the wind loads proposed here is a simple, but not too simple to be representative for preliminary design studies.