Aerodynamic, Structural and Aeroelastic Design of Wind Turbine Blades

Abstract

With the negative impact of conventional energy resources that have been used worldwide, there is a demand for using other resources such as wind energy. Tons of researches have been applied around the globe on the process of designing and manufacturing wind energy conversion systems. In the present chapter, we are concentrating on wind turbine blades' structural design process. The structural design of a wind turbine blade includes defining the wind turbine loads, selecting a suitable material, creating a structural model, and solving the model using the finite element method. This process will be repeated several times until a final design is achieved. The present chapter includes a discussion on the finite element method and wind turbine aeroelasticity.

On the Design and Manufacture of Wind Turbine Blades

“…These analyses can be accomplished either using the blade element momentum (BEM) or by applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A detailed comparison between the two methods can be found in [6]. The two methods are used to solve the blade mathematical model, which is usually has a form of differential equation.…”