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Wind Turbine Blade Design System - Aerodynamic and Structural Analysis

Dey, Soumitr

Abstract Details

2011, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Mechanical Engineering.
The ever increasing need for energy and the depletion of non-renewable energy resources has led to more advancement in the "Green Energy" field, including wind energy. An improvement in performance of a Wind Turbine will enhance its economic viability, which can be achieved by better aerodynamic designs. In the present study, a design system that has been under development for gas turbine turbomachinery has been modified for designing wind turbine blades. This is a very different approach for wind turbine blade design, but will allow it to benefit from the features inherent in the geometry flexibility and broad design space of the presented system. It starts with key overall design parameters and a low-fidelity model that is used to create the initial geometry parameters. The low-fidelity system includes the axisymmetric solver with loss models, T-Axi (Turbomachinery-AXIsymmetric), MISES blade-to-blade solver and 2D wing analysis code XFLR5. The geometry parameters are used to define sections along the span of the blade and connected to the CAD model of the wind turbine blade through CAPRI (Computational Analysis PRogramming Interface), a CAD neutral API that facilitates the use of parametric geometry definition with CAD. Either the sections or the CAD geometry is then available for CFD and Finite Element Analysis. The GE 1.5sle MW wind turbine and NERL NASA Phase VI wind turbine have been used as test cases. Details of the design system application are described, and the resulting wind turbine geometry and conditions are compared to the published results of the GE and NREL wind turbines. A 2D wing analysis code XFLR5, is used for to compare results from 2D analysis to blade-to-blade analysis and the 3D CFD analysis. This kind of comparison concludes that, from hub to 25% of the span blade to blade effects or the cascade effect has to be considered, from 25% to 75%, the blade acts as a 2d wing and from 75% to the tip 3D and tip effects have to be taken into account for design considerations. In addition, the benefits of this approach for wind turbine design and future efforts are discussed.
Mark Turner, ScD (Committee Chair)
Shaaban Abdallah, PhD (Committee Member)
Urmila Ghia, PhD (Committee Member)
Milind Jog, PhD (Committee Member)
170 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dey, S. (2011). Wind Turbine Blade Design System - Aerodynamic and Structural Analysis [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1307440410

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dey, Soumitr. Wind Turbine Blade Design System - Aerodynamic and Structural Analysis. 2011. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1307440410.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dey, Soumitr. "Wind Turbine Blade Design System - Aerodynamic and Structural Analysis." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1307440410

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)