A fast stochastic solution method for the Blade Element Momentum equations for long-term load assessment

What is it about?

Wind loads are unsteady on many timescales. To capture the effects today the deterministic load calculations have to be repeated multiple times. This is computationally expensive, i.e. slow. Through a stochastic method, we obtain the results in one single stochastic solution much quicker.

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Why is it important?

When we want to improve aerodynamic systems, e.g. optimize wind turbine blades, we need to analyze multiple different geometries under a wide spectrum of everßchanging wind loads. The common deterministic methods create a bottleneck as solutions for blades loads, and thus an estimate for the harvested power and the necessary material strength, are cumbersome and slow to obtain. To enable efficient blade optimization and arrive at fundamentally new, better turbine designs faster methods are necessary. Here we introduce such a faster method based on a stochastic analysis.

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