An aeroelastic coupling of an actuator sector model with OpenFAST in atmospheric flows

Abstract

This study presents an implementation of an aeroelastically coupled actuator sector model with OpenFAST in a neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow for a 15 MW reference turbine. Three structural cases with different levels of fidelity are considered. In addition, the results from an aeroelastic actuator line model are used for comparison. The results of the structural cases show the significance of including the torsional deflections and structural nonlinearities to accurately calculate the blade loads as it reduces the power and flapwise damage equivalent load values considerably. In terms of the wake flow, there are differences in the near wake between the considered structural cases. Despite this, further downstream the differences become non-significant. In addition, the results from the actuator sector model are in agreement with those obtained from the actuator line model while using the actuator sector model offers a reduction of around 55% to 80% in the computational time depending on the used structural solver.