CFD Modeling of Wind Turbine Blades with Eroded Leading Edge

Abstract

The present work compares 2D and 3D CFD modeling of wind turbine blades to define reduced-order models of eroded leading edge arrangements. In particular, following an extensive validation campaign of the adopted numerical models, an initially qualitative comparison is carried out on the 2D and 3D flow fields by looking at turbulent kinetic energy color maps. Promising similarities push the analysis to consequent quantitative comparisons. Thus, the differences and shared points between pressure, friction coefficients, and polar diagrams of the 3D blade and the simplified eroded 2D setup are highlighted. The analysis revealed that the inviscid characteristics of the system (i.e., pressure field and lift coefficients) are precisely described by the reduced-order 2D setup. On the other hand, discrepancies in the wall friction and the drag coefficients are systematically observed with the 2D model consistently underestimating the drag contribution by around 17% and triggering flow separation over different streamwise locations. Nevertheless, the proposed 2D model is very accurate in dealing with the more significant aerodynamics performance of the blade and 30 times faster than the 3D assessment in providing the same information. Therefore the proposed 2D CFD setup is of fundamental importance for use in a digital twin of any physical wind turbine with the aim of carefully and accurately planning maintenance, also accounting for leading edge erosion.

Hydrodynamic Investigation on Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Platform Integrated with Porous Shell

“…u s is the lateral velocity of the structure. ρ is the seawater density with a value of 1.025 g/cm 3 . C m is the inertia coefficient.…”

“…In offshore locations, floating wind turbines are subject to more complex environmental conditions and are exposed to severe currents, waves and wind loads. These more complex working conditions may lead to greater motion responses and more severe damage to wind turbine blades [2,3]. The main focus of this paper is reducing the motion response of platform.…”

Experimental and Numerical Studies on a Single Coherent Blade of a Vertical Axis Carousel Wind Rotor

“…The Shear Stress Transport (k-ω SST) turbulence Menter model [34,35] was adopted for the analysis of the air flow around the blade. This is a two-equation eddy-viscosity model that is used for many aerodynamic applications [36][37][38]. The SST Menter model combines the k-ω Wilcox model [39] and standard k-ε model [40].…”

Comparison of Single and Dual Coherent Blades for a Vertical Axis Carousel Wind Rotor Using CFD and Wind Tunnel Testing

“…This makes the k-ω SST model more accurate and reliable for a wide range of flows than standard k-ω or k-ε models [35]. The k-ω SST model is widely used in the analysis of airfoils or wind turbine blades [36][37][38]. The turbulence kinetic energy k and the specific dissipation rate ω are obtained from the transport Equations ( 7) and (8).…”