Articles | Volume 9, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1747-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1747-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
20 Aug 2024
Research article |
| 20 Aug 2024
| 20 Aug 2024
Uncertainty quantification of structural blade parameters for the aeroelastic damping of wind turbines: a code-to-code comparison
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aeroelasticity, Göttingen, Germany
Oliver Hach
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aeroelasticity, Göttingen, Germany
Jelmer D. Polman
Leibniz University Hannover, Institute for Wind Energy Systems, Hanover, Germany
Otto Schramm
Leibniz University Hannover, Institute for Wind Energy Systems, Hanover, Germany
Claudio Balzani
Leibniz University Hannover, Institute for Wind Energy Systems, Hanover, Germany
Sarah Müller
Nordex Energy SE & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany
Johannes Rieke
Nordex Energy SE & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany
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The ongoing upscaling of wind turbines increases blade flexibility and the risk of aeroelastic instabilities, in which oscillations grow instead of being damped, potentially reducing lifetime or causing catastrophic failure. To mitigate this risk, engineers rely on simulation models and physical insight to assess design stability. This research evaluates the accuracy of such models and clarifies the underlying mechanisms, contributing to safe and more efficient future wind turbine designs.
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Wind turbine rotor blades consist of subcomponents that are glued together. Such connections are subject to fatigue loads. This paper analyzes the fatigue load characteristics of three different wind turbine rotor blades in trailing edge adhesive joints. It is shown that the fatigue loads have measurable degrees of non-proportionality and that the choice of the procedure to calculate the fatigue damage is crucial for designing reliable blades.
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We provide a comprehensive overview showing available cross-sectional approaches and their properties in relation to derived requirements for the design of composite rotor blades. The Jung analytical approach shows the best results for accuracy of stiffness terms (coupling and transverse shear) and stress distributions. Improved performance compared to 2D finite element codes could be achieved, making the approach applicable for optimization problems with a high number of design variables.
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In the wind energy industry, a digital twin is fast becoming a key instrument for the monitoring of a wind turbine blade's life cycle. Here, our introduced model updating with invertible neural networks provides an efficient and powerful technique to represent the real blade as built. This method is applied to a full finite element Timoshenko beam model of a blade to successfully update material and layup parameters. The advantage over state-of-the-art methods is the established inverse model.
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Modern rotor blade designs depend on detailed numerical models and simulations. Thus, a validated modeling methodology is fundamental for reliable designs. This paper briefly presents a modeling algorithm for rotor blades, its validation against real-life full-scale blade tests, and the respective test data. The hybrid 3D shell/solid finite-element model is successfully validated against the conducted classical bending tests in flapwise and lead–lag direction as well as novel torsion tests.
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Short summary
Aeroelastic stability simulations are needed to guarantee the safety and overall robust design of wind turbines. To increase our confidence in these simulations in the future, the sensitivity of the stability analysis with respect to variability in the structural properties of the wind turbine blades is investigated. Multiple state-of-the-art tools are compared and the study shows that even though the tools predict similar stability behavior, the sensitivity might be significantly different.
Aeroelastic stability simulations are needed to guarantee the safety and overall robust design...
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