Comparative Study on Uni- and Bi-Directional Fluid Structure Coupling of Wind Turbine Blades
1
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2017, 10(10), 1499; https://doi.org/10.3390/en10101499
Received: 26 July 2017 / Revised: 31 August 2017 / Accepted: 1 September 2017 / Published: 27 September 2017
The current trends of wind turbine blade designs are geared towards a longer and slender blade with high flexibility, exhibiting complex aeroelastic loadings and instability issues, including flutter; in this regard, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) plays a significant role. The present article will conduct a comparative study between uni-directional and bi-directional fluid-structural coupling models for a horizontal axis wind turbine. A full-scale, geometric copy of the NREL 5MW blade with simplified material distribution is considered for simulation. Analytical formulations of the governing relations with appropriate approximation are highlighted, including turbulence model, i.e., Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω. These analytical relations are implemented using Multiphysics package ANSYS employing Fluent module (Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based solver) for the fluid domain and Transient Structural module (Finite Element Analysis-based solver) for the structural domain. ANSYS system coupling module also is configured to model the two fluid-structure coupling methods. The rated operational condition of the blade for a full cycle rotation is considered as a comparison domain. In the bi-directional coupling model, the structural deformation alters the angle of attack from the designed values, and by extension the flow pattern along the blade span; furthermore, the tip deflection keeps fluctuating whilst it tends to stabilize in the uni-directional coupling model.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ageze, M.B.; Hu, Y.; Wu, H. Comparative Study on Uni- and Bi-Directional Fluid Structure Coupling of Wind Turbine Blades. Energies 2017, 10, 1499. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10101499
AMA Style
Ageze MB, Hu Y, Wu H. Comparative Study on Uni- and Bi-Directional Fluid Structure Coupling of Wind Turbine Blades. Energies. 2017; 10(10):1499. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10101499
Chicago/Turabian StyleAgeze, Mesfin B.; Hu, Yefa; Wu, Huachun. 2017. "Comparative Study on Uni- and Bi-Directional Fluid Structure Coupling of Wind Turbine Blades" Energies 10, no. 10: 1499. https://doi.org/10.3390/en10101499
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