Analysis of a structural-aerodynam ic coupled method

for nonlinear aeroelastic response of large-scaled HAWT

LIAO Mingfu1, LYU Pin2
Abstract
Aeroelastic effect is becoming an important issue due to the larger, lighter and more flexible blades
of
large-scaled HAWT. In this study, a structural-aerodynamic coupled method has been developed to
predict the nonlinear aeroelastic responses by coupling a nonlinear beam model based on
geometrically exact beam (GEB) theory for blades structural dynamics with a free-vortex wake
(FVW) model for the prediction of unsteady aerodynamic loads. The two models are coupled by
exchanging the data based on a partitioned loosely coupled methodology.
At first, the nonlinear beam model is validated by validation cases which all show a good
agreement with results obtained by other authors.
Subsequently, by comparing the data of MEXICO experiment with
the FVM model, the capability of the model to accurately predict the
aerodynamic loads of rigid blades is also validated. Finally, the numerical
responses for NREL 5 MW RWT are estimated through fluid-structure
interaction simulations. The blade behaviour is also compared with
numerical results obtained from different aerodynamic models. The results
show that the coupled method is capable of evaluating blade nonlinear
responses for large-scaled HAWT.

Application on NREL 5MW

Fig. 1 shows the peak values of tip flapwise deflection under different
scaled loads. The standard loads are calculated based on undeformed
NREL 5MW blade without tile, yaw, precone and yaw angle at rated
wind speed. It shows the linear beam starts to fail when the scaled
factor is larger than 0.8.
Fig 2 shows the response of NREL 5MW blade at rated wind speed. The
response from the nonlinear aeroelastic model is larger than from FAST.
But as shown by Fig 3, when flap stiffness and edge stiffness are both
adjusted to 50%, the average deflection from the nonlinear aeroelastic
model is almost the same as from FAST, while the amplitude is slightly
larger.
Conclusions
(1) The GEB solver has the capability to simulate the response for large
deflection, while the linear beam theory totally fails.
(2) The results of FVM show better agreement than BEM against to the
MEXICO experiment data.
(3) To study the aerodynamic characteristic of large deflection, the
aeroelastic model with GEB and FVM solver is a reliable nonlinear
aeroelastic analysis tool for large wind turbine blades.