• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 2011

Increasing numbers of floating offshore wind turbines are planned and designed these days due to their high potential in massive generation of clean energy from water depth deeper than 50 m. In the present study, a numerical prediction tool has been developed for the fully-coupled dynamic analysis of FOWTs in time domain including aero-blade-tower dynamics and control, mooring dynamics, and platform motions. In particular, the focus of the present study is paid to the dynamic coupling between the rotor and floater and the coupled case is compared against the uncoupled case so that their dynamic coupling effects can be identified. For this purpose, a mono-column mini TLP with 1.5MW turbine for 80m water depth is selected as an example. The time histories and spectra of the FOWT motions and accelerations as well as tether top-tensions are presented for the given collinear wind-wave condition. When compared with the uncoupled analysis, both standard deviations and maximum values of the floater-responses/tower-accelerations and tether tensions are appreciably increased as a result of the rotor-floater dynamic coupling, which may influence the overall design including fatigue-life estimation especially when larger blades are to be used.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.407-414
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• 2016

As wind turbines are getting larger in size with multi-MW capacity, the blades are getting longer, over 40 m, and hence the asymmetric loads produced during the rotation of the rotor blades are increasing. Some factors such as wind shear, tower shadow, and turbulence have an effect on the asymmetric loads on the blades. This paper focuses on a method of modeling the dynamic load acting on a blade because of thrust variation under wind shear. A method that uses thrust coefficient is presented. For this purpose, "wind shear coefficient of thrust variation" is defined and introduced. Further, we calculate the values of the "wind shear coefficient of thrust variation" for a 2 MW on-shore wind turbine, and analyze them for speeds below the rated wind speed. Then, we implement a dynamic model that represents the thrust variation under wind shear on a blade, using MATLAB/Simulink. It is shown that it is possible to express thrust variations on three blades under wind shear by using both thrust coefficient and "wind shear coefficient of thrust variation."

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.289-309
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• 2014

A rotor blade is an important device that converts kinetic energy of wind into mechanical energy. Rotor blades affect the power performance, energy conversion efficiency, and loading and dynamic stability of wind turbines. Therefore, considering the characteristics of a wind turbine system is important for achieving optimal blade design. This study examined the general blade design procedure for a wind turbine system and aero-structure design results for a 2-MW class wind turbine blade (KR40.1b). As suggested above, a rotor blade cannot be designed independently, because its ultimate and fatigue loads are highly dependent on system operating conditions. Thus, a reference 2-MW wind turbine system was also developed for the system integrated load calculations. All calculations were performed in accordance with IEC 61400-1 and the KR guidelines for wind turbines.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.455-463
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• 2012

In this study, we calculate dynamic constrained force of tower top and blade root of a floating offshore wind turbine. The floating offshore wind turbine is multibody system which consists of a floating platform, a tower, a nacelle, and a hub and three blades. All of these parts are regarded as a rigid body with six degree-of-freedom(DOF). The platform and the tower are connected with fixed joint, and the tower, the nacelle, and the hub are successively connected with revolute joint. The hub and three blades are connected with fixed joint. The recursive formulation is adopted for constructing the equations of motion for the floating wind turbine. The non-linear hydrostatic force, the linear hydrodynamic force, the aerodynamic force, the mooring force, and gravitational forces are considered as external forces. The dynamic load at the tower top, rotor shaft, and blade root of the floating wind turbine are simulated in time domain by solving the equations of motion numerically. From the simulation results, the mutual effects of the dynamic response between the each part of the floating wind turbine are discussed and can be used as input data for the structural analysis of the floating offshore wind turbine.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.901-906
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• 2010

A three-dimensional flow simulation was performed to investigate the flow field in a wind farm on a complex terrain. The present study aims to examine the effects of mountainous terrain and turbine arrangement on the performance of wind power generation. A total of 49 wind turbines was modeled in the computational domain; detailed blade shape of the turbines was considered. Frozen rotor method was used to simulate the rotating operation. The torque acting on the turbine blades was calculated to evaluate the performance of the wind turbines. The numerical results showed details of the flow structure in the wind farm including the velocity deficit in the separated flow regions; this velocity deficit was due to the topographical effect. The effect of the wake induced by the upstream turbine on the performance of the downstream wind turbine could also be observed from the results. The methodology of the present study can be used for selecting future wind-farm sites and wind-turbine locations in a selected site to ensure maximum power generation.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.295-307
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• 2013

More FOWTs (floating offshore wind turbines) will be installed as relevant regulations and technological hurdles are removed in the coming years. In the present study, a numerical prediction tool has been developed for the fully coupled dynamic analysis of FOWTs in time domain including aero-loading, tower elasticity, blade-rotor dynamics and control, mooring dynamics, and platform motions so that the influence of rotor-control dynamics on the hull-mooring performance and vice versa can be assessed. The developed coupled analysis program is applied to Hywind spar design with 5 MW turbine. In case of spar-type floaters, the control strategy significantly influences the hull and mooring dynamics. If one of the control systems fails, the entire dynamic responses of FOWT can be significantly different. Therefore, it is important to maintain various control systems in a good operational condition. In this regard, the effects of failed blade pitch control system on FOWT performance including structural and dynamic responses of blades, tower, and floater are systematically investigated. Through this study, it is seen that the failure of one of the blade pitch control system can induce significant dynamic loadings on the other blades and the entire FOWT system. The developed technology and numerical tool are readily applicable to any types of floating wind farms in any combinations of irregular waves, dynamic winds, and steady currents.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.577-594
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• 2016

In this paper a practical modelling methodology is presented for a series of aero- servo- elastic- coupled numerical analyses of small wind turbine operation, with particular emphasis on variable speed generator modelling in various wind speed conditions. The following characteristics are determined using the available computer tools: the tip speed ratio as a function of the generator constant (under the assumption of constant wind speed), the turbine coefficient of power as a function of the tip speed ratio (the torque curve is modified accordingly and generator speed and power curves are plotted), turbine power curves and coefficient of power curve as functions of the incoming wind speed. The last stage is to determine forces and torques acting on rotor blades and turbine tower for specific incoming wind speeds in order to examine the impact of the stall phenomena on these values (beyond the rated power of the turbine). It is shown that the obtained results demonstrate a valuable guideline for small wind turbines design process.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.228-229
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• 2003

Complex flow field around the Darius turbine rotating stationally are simulated by solving the three dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation numerically. The rotating coordinate system is employed so that the boundary conditions on the blades of the rotor become simple. In order to impose the boundary condition on the blades precisely, the boundary fitted coordinate system is employed. Fractional step method is used to solve the basic equations. The complex flow fields due to the three dimensionality of the geometry of the turbine and the rotation of the turbine are obtained and they are visualized effectively by using the technique of the computer graphics.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.906-913
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• 2003

The purpose of this 3-D numerical simulation is to evaluate the application of a commercial CFD code to predict 3-D flow and power characteristics of wind turbines. The experimental approach, which has been main method of investigation, appears to be its limits, the cost increasing with the size of the wind turbines, hence mostly limited to observing the phenomena on rotor blades. Therefore. the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques and Navier-Stokes solvers are considered a very serious contender. The flow solver CFX-TASCflow is employed in all computations in this paper. The 3-D flow separation and the wake distribution of 2 and 3 bladed Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) are compared to Heuristic model and smoke-visualized experimental result by NREL(National Renewable Energy Laboratory). Simulated 3-D flow separation structure on the rotor blade is very similar to Heuristic model and the wake structure of the wind turbine is good consistent with smoke-visualized result. The calculated power of the 3 bladed rotor by CFD is compared with BEM results by TU-Delft. The CFD results of which is somewhat consist with BEM results. under an error less than 10%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.266-273
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• 2003

A wind turbine simulator is developed for the emulation of variable input torque from the wind energy without actual rotor blades using motor-generator set. The torque command of dc motor is calculated from the characteristic equation of rotor blade during the change of wind speed. Especially the proposed control algorithm takes into account the fact that the moment of inertia of blade is much larger than that of driving motor. If you select the desired value of inertia, the stored/restored energy of the inertia during acceleration/deceleration can be compensated effectively resulting the only net torque is delivered to the generator. The simulator set-up has been designed and implemented using a do motor and drive. Feasibility of the proposed algorithm is verified by computer simulations and experiments.