Application of the Orthogonal Curvilinear Grid to FDTD Modeling of a Deflected Wind Turbine Blade

Abstract

Implementation of the orthogonal curvilinear grid in the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to solve the problem of UWB propagation along a 58.7 m long wind turbine blade with various deflections is described. This approach is straightforward in that no rotation or bending of the blade model is needed, since it is the entire computational domain that is bent instead. The main benefit of this technique is that existing Cartesian FDTD code can be reused without any modification, as long as it allows inclusion of anisotropic materials.