A numerical investigation of fluid-structure coupling of 3 MW wind turbine blades

ABSTRACT

In this paper, computational modeling is created for 3 MW wind turbine blade using the software Solidworks, and the computations are carried out using Workbench for the fluid–structure interaction of blades due to both the rated and the extreme wind load. The methods developed are applied to the simulation of the NREL Phase VI wind turbine blades, and validation against published data is presented. Moreover, the static structural analysis for wind turbine rotor is performed using Mechanical APDL. The results show that the maximum values of stress reach 458 MPa and 76.9 MPa due to the rated and extreme wind load, respectively, which are lower than 78.3 MPa, the flexural strength of Swancor 2511-A epoxy resin for blade material.

KEYWORDS:

• 3 MW
• blade
• fluid–structure interaction analysis
• static structural analysis
• wind turbine

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the HeFei University of Technology fund (2012HGXJ0668) and the HeFei University of Technology Student Innovation Fund (2012CXCY038).