What is it about?
We currently notice a substantial growth in the wind energy sector worldwide. This growth is expected to be even faster in the coming years. This means that a massive number of wind turbine blades will be produced in the forthcoming years. There is a large potential for materials savings in these blades. The analysis of designed blade is done in dynamic loading. Five types of spars cross‑section are taken in this work. The blade and spar are of composite material. The Finite element modal analysis of designed blade is done in ABAQUS. The scope of the present work is to investigate the structural modal analysis of full‑scale 48m fiberglass composite wind turbine blades for 5MW horizontal axis wind turbine and through this to assess the potential for materials savings and consequent reductions of the rotor weight. The entire wind turbine can benefit from such weight reductions through decreased dynamics loads and thus leave room for further optimization. A numerical work has been used to address the most adequate spar shape and to get an understanding of the complex structural behavior of wind turbine blades. Five different types of structural reinforcements helping to prevent undesired structural elastic mechanisms are presented. Comparisons of the eigenfrequencies observed in the full‑scale tests are presented and conclusions are drawn based on the mechanisms found.
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Why is it important?
wind turbine, rotor, spar, structure, modelization
Perspectives
The present investigation has demonstrated that essential dynamic properties of wind turbine blades, like natural frequencies and mode shapes, can be numerically determined by use of the modal analysis technique. Blades with different spar geometry have been considered and the most appropriate of these has been selected. Although the comparison is based only on FE results on a 48m blade, the recommendations given are believed to be valid for other types (sizes, designs, ...) of wind turbine blades as well
Professor Mostapha TARFAOUI
ENSTA Bretagne
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This page is a summary of: Numerical investigation of a large composite wind turbine with different spar profiles using finite-element method, La Houille Blanche, October 2015, EDP Sciences,
DOI: 10.1051/lhb/20150052.
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