Aeroelastic measurements and simulations of a small wind turbine operating in the built environment

Evans, Samuel P.; Bradney, David; Clausen, Philip

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/753/4/042013

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…For example, in [21], a methodology is developed for the aerostructural design of small wind turbine blades, including the consideration of the need of fast starting. In [22], aeroelastic simulations of a small 5 kW Aerogenesis wind turbine are compared against operational measurements and a simplified load equation: it arises that loads calculated from simplified load equations are overpredicted, while the occurrence of damage cycles per minute is underpredicted. In [23], a numerical optimization and design study is performed for a guyed mast structure intended for supporting a 3 kW small wind turbine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Vibrational Analysis of a Horizontal-Axis Micro-Wind Turbine

et al. 2018

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Micro-wind turbines are energy conversion technologies strongly affected by fatigue, as a result of their size and the variability of loads, induced by the unsteady wind conditions, and modulated by a very high rotational speed. This work is devoted to the experimental and numerical characterization of the aeroelastic behavior of a test-case horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) with a 2 m rotor diameter and a maximum power production of 3 kW. The experimental studies have been conducted at the wind tunnel of the University of Perugia and consisted of accelerometer measurements at the tower and the tail fin. The numerical setup was the Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence (FAST) code for aeroelastic simulations, which was fed as input with the same wind conditions employed in the wind tunnel tests. The experimental and numerical analyses were coupled with the perspective of establishing a reciprocal feedback, and this has been accomplished. On one hand, the numerical model is important for interpreting the measured spectrum of tower oscillations and, for example, inspires the detection of a mass unbalance at the blades. On the other hand, the measurements inspire the question of how to interpret the interaction between the blades and the tower. The experimental spectrum of tail fin vibrations indicates that secondary elements, in terms of weight, can also transmit to the tower, giving meaningful contributions to the vibration spectra. Therefore, an integrated numerical and experimental approach is not only valuable but is also unavoidable, to fully characterize the dynamics of small wind-energy conversion systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Vibrational Analysis of a Horizontal-Axis Micro-Wind Turbine

et al. 2018

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“…While birds have evolved to morph their wing shapes to the flight and manoeuvre conditions, manufactured wings require control to achieve wing morphing. The use of morphing wings for wind turbines has been explored in principle [4], for horizontal-axis wind turbines [5] and vertical-axis wind turbines [6].…”

Section: B Small Wind Turbine Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bio-inspired aerofoils for small wind turbines

Mulligan¹

2024

RE&PQJ

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This paper investigates the effectiveness of modifying the design of wind turbine blades for small wind turbines. Taking inspiration from nature, the two modifications explored were spanwise corrugations of the blades inspired by a dragonfly's wing structure, and flexible blades inspired by the shape-morphing of birds and insect wings that adapt to the air conditions. Two types of corrugations were tested in a wind tunnel with the results that the corrugated nature appeared to have desired effects on delaying stall by 4° and reduced the detriment of post-stall behaviour. In addition, the corrugated skin displayed similar characteristics to the control aerofoil, with a small reduction in the peak lift to drag ratio of 7.3%. In the second section, a rigid turbine blade was compared a semi-flexible and fully flexible blade by altering the Young's modulus using the QBlade simulation tool. Although, spanwise deflection was high in the flexible blade, a reduction in the peak stresses was shown.

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“…This [19,20], with further details of this process found in [16,21]. Key to the development of this aeroelastic model is the input of aerofoil properties that govern rotor performance, turbine dynamics, and output power.…”

Section: Aeroelastic Modelling 211 Development Of the Fast Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors observed that both the standard models underestimated he magnitude of the measured values for all wind components and proposed a corrected Kaimal model for rooftop sites in the built environment. Researchers at the University of Newcastle (UoN) have created detailed computational models of SWTs operating in highly turbulent environments and have verified the accuracy of these models against experimental data obtained from an instrumented 5 kW Aerogenesis turbine [16]. Both groups have collected a significant amount of wind data at their respective sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The suitability of the IEC 61400-2 wind model for small wind turbines operating in the built environment

Evans

Bradney

et al. 2017

Renew. Energy Environ. Sustain.

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Abstract. This paper investigates the applicability of the assumed wind fields in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard 61400 Part 2, the design standard for small wind turbines, for a turbine operating in the built environment, and the effects these wind fields have on the predicted performance of a 5 kW Aerogenesis turbine using detailed aeroelastic models developed in Fatigue Aerodynamics Structures and Turbulence (FAST). Detailed wind measurements were acquired at two built environment sites: from the rooftop of a Bunnings Ltd. warehouse at Port Kennedy (PK) (Perth, Australia) and from the small wind turbine site at the University of Newcastle at Callaghan (Newcastle, Australia). For both sites, IEC 61400-2 underestimates the turbulence intensity for the majority of the measured wind speeds. A detailed aeroelastic model was built in FAST using the assumed wind field from IEC 61400-2 and the measured wind fields from PK and Callaghan as an input to predict key turbine performance parameters. The results of this analysis show a modest increase in the predicted mean power for the higher turbulence regimes of PK and Callaghan as well as higher variation in output power. Predicted mean rotor thrust and blade flapwise loading showed a minor increase due to higher turbulence, with mean predicted torque almost identical but with increased variations due to higher turbulence. Damage equivalent loading for the blade flapwise moment was predicted to be 58% and 11% higher for a turbine operating at Callaghan and PK respectively, when compared with IEC 61400-2 wind field. Time series plots for blade flapwise moments and power spectral density plots in the frequency domain show consistently higher blade flapwise bending moments for the Callaghan site with both the sites showing a once-per-revolution response.

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Aeroelastic measurements and simulations of a small wind turbine operating in the built environment

Cited by 10 publications

References 17 publications

Experimental and Numerical Vibrational Analysis of a Horizontal-Axis Micro-Wind Turbine

Experimental and Numerical Vibrational Analysis of a Horizontal-Axis Micro-Wind Turbine

Bio-inspired aerofoils for small wind turbines

The suitability of the IEC 61400-2 wind model for small wind turbines operating in the built environment

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