• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2011

In the present study, numerical unsteady simulations of the NREL Phase VI wind turbine in downwind operation conditions were conducted to investigate rotor-tower interaction. The calculations were performed using an unstructured mesh, incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes flow solver. To capture the unsteady effects associated with the tower shadow between the rotor blades and the tower, the wind turbine was modelled including the rotor, tower, hub, and nacelle. The present results generally showed good agreements with available experimental data. At the lowest wind speed, the pressure distribution was characterized by a complete collapse of the suction peak on the blade when the blade passes through the tower wake. It was found that unsteady effects play a significant role in the response of the blades.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.164-168
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• 2013

Tidal-current power is now recognized as a clean power resource. The turbine blade is the fundamental component of a tidal current power turbine. The kinetic energy available within a tidal current can be converted into rotational power by turbine blades. While in service, turbine blades are generally subjected to cyclic fatigue loading due to their rotation and the rotor-tower interaction. Predicting the fatigue life under a hydrodynamic fatigue load is very important to prevent blade failure while in service. To predict the fatigue life, hydrodynamic load data should be acquired. In this study, the vibration characteristics were analyzed based on three-dimensional unsteady simulations to obtain the cyclic fatigue load. Our results can be applied to the fatigue design of horizontal-axis tidal turbines.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.201-209
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• 2011

An unsteady RANS analysis study of the 3-D flow around the NREL Phase VI horizontal axis wind turbine(HAWT) was performed using sliding mesh approach. Two different analysis models such as rotor-only and rotor with tower/nacelle were constructed to investigate the blade/tower interaction. Analysis results for the rotor with tower/nacelle were compared with the corresponding NREL's experimental data which produced fairly good validation of the present CFD model. Comparison of flows around those two models also clearly showed the blade/tower interaction even it was small for upwind configuration. Other visualization results and integrated aerodynamic loads including torque of the blade demonstrated the effective unsteady flow simulation capability of the present CFD model.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2017

The treatment of rotor wake has been a critical issue in the field of the rotor aerodynamics. This paper presents a new free wake model for the unsteady analysis for a wind turbine. A blade-wake-tower interaction is major source of unsteady aerodynamic loading and noise on the wind turbine. However, this interaction can not be considered in conventional free wake model. Thus, the free wake model named Finite Vortex Element (FVE hereafter) was devised in order to consider the interaction effects. In this new free wake model, the wake-tower interaction was described by dividing one vortex filament into two vortex filaments, when the vortex filament collided with a tower. Each divided vortex filaments were remodeled to make vortex ring and horseshoe vortex to satisfy Kelvin's circulation theorem and Helmholtz's vortex theorem. This model was then used to predict aerodynamic load and wake geometry for the horizontal axis wind turbine. The results of the FVE model were compared with those of the conventional free wake model and the experimental results of SNU wind tunnel test and NREL wind tunnel test under various inflow velocity and yaw condition. The result of the FVE model showed better correlation with experimental data. It was certain that the tower interaction has a strong effect on the unsteady aerodynamic load of blades. Thus, the tower interaction needs to be taken into account for the unsteady load prediction. As a result, this research shows a potential of the FVE for an efficient and versatile numerical tool for unsteady loading analysis of a wind turbine.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.1 s.1
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• pp.54-63
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• 2005

A critical issue in the field of the rotor aerodynamics is the treatment of the wake. The wake is of primary importance in determining overall aerodynamic behavior, especially, a wind turbine blade includes the unsteady airloads problem. In this study, the wake generated by blades are depicted by a free wake model to analyse unsteady loading on blade and a new free wake model named Finite Vortex Element(FVE hereafter) is devised in order to include a wake-tower interaction. In this new free wake model, blade-wake-tower interaction is described by cutting a vortex filament when the filament collides with a tower. This FVE model is compared with a conventional free wake model and verified by a comparison with NRELand SNU wind tunnel model. A comparison with NREL and SNU data shows validity and effectiveness of devised FVE free wake model and an efficient.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2005

A critical issue in the field of the rotor aerodynamics is the treatment of the wake. The wake is of primary importance in determining overall aerodynamic behavior, especially, a wind turbine blade includes the unsteady air loads problem. In this study, the wake generated by blades are depicted by a free wake model to analyse unsteady loading on blade and a new free wake model named Finite Vortex Element(FVE hereafter) is devised in order to include a wake-tower interact ion. In this new free wake model, blade-wake-tower interaction is described by cutting a vortex filament when the filament collides with a tower. This FVE model is compared with a conventional free wake model and verified by a comparison with NREL and SNU wind tunnel model. A comparison with NREL and SNU data shows validity and effectiveness of devised FVE free wake model and an efficient.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.26-33
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• 2010

A multi-MW wind turbine is a huge mechanical structure, of which the rotor diameter is more or less than 100 m. Rotor blades experience unsymmetric mechanical loads caused by the interaction of incoming wind with the tower and wind shear effect. These mechanical loads are transferred to the entire structure of the wind turbine and are known as the major reasons for shortening the life span of the wind turbine. Therefore, as the size of wind turbine gets bigger, the mitigation of mechanical loads becomes more important issue in wind turbine control system design. In this paper, a concept of an individual pitch control(IPC), which minimizes the mechanical loads of rotor blades, is introduced, and simulation results using IPC are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2014

This paper presents the structural model development and verification processes of wind turbine blade. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Phase VI wind turbine which the wind tunnel and structural test data has publicly available is used for the study. The wind turbine assembled by blades, rotor, nacelle and tower. The wind blade connected to rotor. To make the whole turbine structural model, the mass and stiffness properties of all parts should be clear and given. However the wind blade, hub, nacelle, rotor and power generating machinery parts have difficulties to define the material properties because of the composite and assembling nature of that. Nowadays to increase the power generating coefficient and cost efficiency, the highly accurate aerodynamic loading evaluating technique should be developed. The Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is the emerging new way to evaluate the aerodynamic force on the rotating wind blade. To perform the FSI analysis, the fluid and structural model which are sharing the associated interface topology have to be provided. In this paper, the structural model of blade development and verifying processes have been explained for Part1. In following Part2 paper, the processes of whole turbine system will be discussing.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.7
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• pp.731-738
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• 2012

In this study, the evaluation of the aerodynamic characteristics of the NREL Phase VI Rotor System has been performed, for the 7 m/s upwind case using commercial FEA and CFD tools which are ANSYS Mechanical 12.1 and CFX 12.1. The initial operating conditions of the rotor blade include a $3^{\circ}$ tip pitch angle. A numerical simulation was carried out on only the rotor parts, excluding the tower structure based on the equivalent stiffness model, to consider the aeroelastic effect for the numerical simulation using the loosely coupled 2-way fluid-structure interaction method. The blade root bending moment was monitored in real time to obtain reasonable results. To verify the analysis results, the numerical simulation results were compared with the measurements in the form of the root bending moment and the pressure distributions of the NREL/NASA Ames wind tunnel test.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.85-112
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• 2011

Wind turbine structures are long slender columns with a rotor and blade assembly placed on the top. These slender structures vibrate due to dynamic environmental forces and its own dynamics. Analysis of the dynamic behavior of wind turbines is fundamental to the stability, performance, operation and safety of these systems. In this paper a simplied approach is outlined for free vibration analysis of these long, slender structures taking the soil-structure interaction into account. The analytical method is based on an Euler-Bernoulli beam-column with elastic end supports. The elastic end-supports are considered to model the flexible nature of the interaction of these systems with soil. A closed-form approximate expression has been derived for the first natural frequency of the system. This new expression is a function of geometric and elastic properties of wind turbine tower and properties of the foundation including soil. The proposed simple expression has been independently validated using an exact numerical method, laboratory based experimental measurement and field measurement of a real wind turbine structure. The results obtained in the paper shows that the proposed expression can be used for a quick assessment of the fundamental frequency of a wind turbine taking the soil-structure interaction into account.