CFD and aeroelastic analysis of the MEXICO wind turbine

This paper presents an aerodynamic and aeroelastic analysis of the MEXICO wind turbine, using the compressible HMB solver of Liverpool. The aeroelasticity of the blade, as well as the effect of a low-Mach scheme were studied for the zero-yaw 15m/s wind case and steady- state computations. The wake developed behind the rotor was also extracted and compared with the experimental data, using the compressible solver and a low-Mach scheme. It was found that the loads were not sensitive to the Mach number effects, although the low-Mach scheme improved the wake predictions. The sensitivity of the results to the blade structural properties was also highlighted

CFD investigation of a complete floating offshore wind turbine

This chapter presents numerical computations for floating offshore wind turbines for a machine of 10-MW rated power. The rotors were computed using the Helicopter Multi-Block flow solver of the University of Glasgow that solves the Navier-Stokes equations in integral form using the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation for time-dependent domains with moving boundaries. Hydrodynamic loads on the support platform were computed using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method. This method is mesh-free, and represents the fluid by a set of discrete particles. The motion of the floating offshore wind turbine is computed using a Multi-Body Dynamic Model of rigid bodies and frictionless joints. Mooring cables are modelled as a set of springs and dampers. All solvers were validated separately before coupling, and the loosely coupled algorithm used is described in detail alongside the obtained results

Computational fluid dynamics investigation of some wind turbine rotor design parameters

This article presents an investigation of the relative importance of key design parameters of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) blade. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used as the main tool, after validation against experimental data of the (National Aeronautics and Space Administration/National Renewable Energy Laboratory) NREL/NASA-Ames Phase VI wind tunnel campaign. Tip and root sections, blade aspect ratio, and pitch angle were analysed and all CFD calculations were performed using a compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier—Stokes solver. CFD grids of advanced multi-block topologies were used including up to 4.5 million cells. A grid convergence study indicated that a resolution of 3.4 million cells was adequate for the selected flow conditions, which correspond to an upwind wind turbine at 0° yaw angle, 7 m/s wind speed, and 72 r/min rotational speed. Various root and tip configurations were considered and the results obtained indicate that the exact representation of the root and tip geometry of an HAWT has a small but finite effect in the thrust and torque levels at working conditions. This effect is however secondary to the effects of aspect ratio and blade pitch