High Specification Offshore Blades: Work Package: 1B: Blades Design

This report outlines the current state of the art in offshore wind turbine blade aerodynamic design, along with the key technical limitations and possible technologies which may improve the aerodynamic design of blades and turbine rotors in the future. It is suggested that there are three principal areas in which aerodynamic improvements can be made to the design of offshore wind turbine systems: improved rotor system and blade tip design for operation at higher tip speeds, optimisation of wind farm design to alleviate aerodynamic interactions between individual turbines, and the aerodynamic feasibility of using structural mode coupling to achieve pitch and/or stall control of the loads on blades

Simulation of Unsteady Aerdynamic Load for Rigid Coaxial Rotor in Forward Flight with Vortex Particle Method

Co-axial rotor systems are frequently used for high-speed helicopters. Nevertheless, issues related to rotor-head drag, aerodynamic performance and vibration should also be considered. Simulating the unsteady aerodynamic loads for a rigid coaxial rotor, including the aerodynamic interactions between rotors and rotor blades, is an essential part of analyzing their vibration characteristics. In this paper, an unsteady aerodynamic analysis based on the vortex-lattice method is presented. In this method, a reversed flow model on the retreating side of the coaxial rotor is proposed based on the unsteady panel method. To account for reversed flow, shedding a vortex from the leading-edge is used rather than from the trailing-edge. Moreover, vortex-blade aerodynamic interactions are modelled. The model considers the unsteady pressure term induced on a blade by tip vortices of other blades, and thus accounts for the aerodynamic interaction between the rotors and its contribution to the unsteady airloads. Coupling the reversed flow model and the vortex-blade aerodynamic interaction model with a viscous vortex particle method is used to simulate the complex wake of the coaxial rotor, closing the loop in modelling aerodynamic interactions of coaxial rotors. Following this, the unsteady aerodynamic loads on the X2 coaxial rotor are simulated in forward flight, and compared with the results of PRASADUM (Parallelized Rotorcraft Analysis for Simulation And Design, developed at the University of Maryland) and CFD/CSD computations with the OVERFLOW and the CREATE-AV Helios tools. The results of the present method agree with the results of the CFD/CSD method, and compare better than the PRASADUM solutions. Furthermore, the influence of the aerodynamic interaction between the coaxial rotors on the unsteady airloads, frequency, wake structure, induced flow and force distributions are analyzed. Additionally, the results are also compared against computation for a single rotor case, simulated at similar conditions as the coaxial rotor. It is shown that the effect of tip vortex interaction plays a significant role in unsteady airloads of coaxial rotors at low-speeds, while the rotor blade passing effect is obvious strengthened at high-speed

Comparisons of several aerodynamic methods for application to dynamic loads analyses

The results of a study are presented in which the applicability at subsonic speeds of several aerodynamic methods for predicting dynamic gust loads on aircraft, including active control systems, was examined and compared. These aerodynamic methods varied from steady state to an advanced unsteady aerodynamic formulation. Brief descriptions of the structural and aerodynamic representations and of the motion and load equations are presented. Comparisons of numerical results achieved using the various aerodynamic methods are shown in detail. From these results, aerodynamic representations for dynamic gust analyses are identified. It was concluded that several aerodynamic methods are satisfactory for dynamic gust analyses of configurations having either controls fixed or active control systems that primarily affect the low frequency rigid body aircraft response

Aerodynamic Effects in a Dropped Ping-Pong Ball Experiment

This paper addresses aerodynamic modeling issues related to a simple experiment in which a pingpong ball is dropped from rest onto a table surface. From the times between the ball-table impacts, the initial drop height and the coefficient of restitution can be determined using a model that neglects aerodynamic drag. The experiment prompts questions about modeling the dynamics of a simple impact problem, including the importance of accounting for aerodynamic effects. Two nonlinear aerodynamic models are discussed in the context of experimental results

Turbine design review text

Three-volume publication covers theoretical, design, and performance aspects of turbines. Volumes cover thermodynamic and fluid-dynamic concepts, velocity diagram design, turbine blade aerodynamic design, turbine energy losses, supersonic turbines, radial-inflow turbines, turbine cooling, and aerodynamic performance testing

Bifurcations in unsteady aerodynamics

Nonlinear algebraic functional expansions are used to create a form for the unsteady aerodynamic response that is consistent with solutions of the time dependent Navier-Stokes equations. An enumeration of means of invalidating Frechet differentiability of the aerodynamic response, one of which is aerodynamic bifurcation, is proposed as a way of classifying steady and unsteady aerodynamic phenomena that are important in flight dynamics applications. Accomodating bifurcation phenomena involving time dependent equilibrium states within a mathematical model of the aerodynamic response raises an issue of memory effects that becomes more important with each successive bifurcation

Nonlinear problems in flight dynamics involving aerodynamic bifurcations

Aerodynamic bifurcation is defined as the replacement of an unstable equilibrium flow by a new stable equilibrium flow at a critical value of a parameter. A mathematical model of the aerodynamic contribution to the aircraft's equations of motion is amended to accommodate aerodynamic bifurcations. Important bifurcations such as, the onset of large-scale vortex-shedding are defined. The amended mathematical model is capable of incorporating various forms of aerodynamic responses, including those associated with dynamic stall of airfoils

Simulating wind turbine interactions using the vorticity transport equations

The aerodynamic interactions that can occur within a wind farm result in the constituent turbines generating a lower power output than would be possible if each of the turbines were operated in isolation. Tightening of the constraints on the siting of wind farms is likely to increase the scale of the problem in the future. The aerodynamic performance ofturbine rotors and the mechanisms that couple the fluid dynamics of multiple rotors can be understood best by simplifying the problem and considering the interaction between only two rotors. The aerodynamic interaction between two rotors in both axial and yawed wind conditions has been simulated using the Vorticity Transport Model. The aerodynamic interaction is a function of the tip speed ratio, the separation between the rotors, and the angle of yaw to the incident wind. The simulations show that the momentum deficit at a turbine operating within the wake developed by the rotor of a second turbine can limitsubstantially the mean power coefficient that can be developed by the turbine rotor. In addition, the significant unsteadiness in the aerodynamic loading on the rotor blades that results from the inherent asymmetry of the interaction, particularly in certain configurations and wind conditions, has considerable implications for the fatigue life of the blade structure and rotor hub. The Vorticity Transport Model enables the simulation the wakedynamics within wind farms and the subsequent aerodynamic interaction to be evaluated over a broad range of wind farm configurations and operating conditions