Combined preliminary–detailed design of wind turbines

Bortolotti, Pietro; Bottasso, Carlo L.; Croce, Alessandro

doi:10.5194/wes-1-71-2016

Cited by 75 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…4a. First, as already observed 5 in Bortolotti et al (2016), the current cost models predict a reduction of CoE when the rotor is enlarged. Within this trend, downwind configurations appear to be able to successfully limit the growth in blade mass and cost.…”

Section: Cost and Performance Comparisonsupporting

confidence: 64%

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Bortolotti¹,

Kapila²,

Bottasso³

2018

Preprint

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The size of wind turbines has been steadily growing in the pursuit of a lower cost of energy by an increased wind capture. In this trend, the vast majority of wind turbine rotors has been designed based on the conventional three-bladed upwind concept. This paper aims at assessing the optimality of this configuration with respect to a three-bladed downwind design, with and without an actively controlled variable coning used to reduce the cantilever loading of the blades. A 10 MW wind turbine is used for the comparison of the various design solutions, which are obtained by an automated comprehensive 5 aerostructural design tool. Results show that, for this turbine size, downwind rotors lead to blade mass and cost reductions of 6% and 2%, respectively, compared to equivalent upwind configurations. Due to a more favorable rotor attitude, the annual energy production of downwind rotors may also slightly increase in complex terrain conditions characterized by a wind upflow, leading to an overall reduction in the cost of energy. However, in more standard operating conditions, upwind rotors return the lowest cost of energy. Finally, active coning is effective in alleviating loads by reducing both blade mass and cost, but these 10 potential benefits are negated by an increased system complexity and reduced energy production. In summary, a conventional design appears difficult to beat even at these turbine sizes, although a downwind non-aligned configuration might result in an interesting alternative.

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Section: Cost and Performance Comparisonsupporting

confidence: 64%

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Bortolotti¹,

Kapila²,

Bottasso³

2018

Preprint

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“…For example, one especially important design driver of very long blades is the minimum clearance between tip and tower to prevent strikes. In fact, the design of large upwind rotors is often driven by tip-clearance requirements (Bortolotti et al, , 2018. To meet this constraint, designers are increasingly adopting a combination of thick airfoils and high-modulus composites to increase the out-of-plane stiffness of the blades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Bortolotti¹,

Kapila²,

Bottasso³

2019

Wind Energ. Sci.

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Abstract. The size of wind turbines has been steadily growing in the pursuit of a lower cost of energy by an increased wind capture. Within this trend, the vast majority of wind turbine rotors have been designed based on the conventional three-bladed upwind concept. This paper aims at assessing the optimality of this configuration with respect to a three-bladed downwind design, with and without an actively controlled variable coning used to reduce the cantilever loading of the blades. Results indicate that a conventional design appears difficult to beat even at these turbine sizes, although a downwind nonaligned configuration might be an interesting alternative.

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“…-Macro optimization 17 : rotor diameter, hub height, nacelle uptilt angle, rotor cone angle, maximum allowable blade tip speed, overall blade shape parameters (solidity, thickness, and chord and thickness tapering factors).…”

Section: Design Methods and Simulation Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Legend: see Figure 3 [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] A third study is performed on the reorientation of the outer shell skin laminate, in order to contribute to the BTC effect and possibly reduce fiber angles in the spar caps, as already proposed in Bottasso et al 7 Because of its very mild anisotropy, which limits BTC effects, the baseline triaxial laminate is changed to the one of the 2.0 MW rotor used as a starting point for the present developments. 17 By simply adopting this more anisotropic laminate, the rotor, here labeled F-BTC Sk1 (where subscript Sk stands for shell skin), shows benefits in blade mass and cost of 6.3% and 1.4%, respectively. Lastly, two more tests are performed imposing angles in the new skin laminate of 10 • and 20 • .…”

Section: Btc By Composite Fiber Rotation or F-btcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of multiple passive load mitigation technologies by automated design optimization—The case study of a medium‐size onshore wind turbine

et al. 2018

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The present work considers the application to a medium‐size onshore wind turbine of passive load mitigation technologies, first individually and then integrated together. The study is conducted with the help of a comprehensive automated design optimization procedure, which eases the generation and comparison of consistent solutions, each satisfying the same overall requirements. Passive load mitigation is here obtained by inducing bend‐twist coupling to the blades. The coupling is generated by rotating the fibers of anisotropic laminates, by the aerodynamic sweeping of the blade and by offsetting the spar caps in opposite directions on the pressure and suction sides. The first two solutions yield significant benefits, while the third, for this particular wind turbine, is ineffective. In addition, the typical power losses associated with bend‐twist coupled blades are reduced by a novel regulation strategy that varies the fine pitch setting in the partial load region. After having considered each load mitigation technology by itself, fiber rotation and sweeping are combined together and used to design a rotor with a larger swept area. The final design generates cost of energy savings thanks to a large‐diameter, highly coned, soft‐in‐bending rotor that results in lower turbine costs and a higher energy capture compared with the baseline design.

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Combined preliminary–detailed design of wind turbines

Cited by 75 publications

References 23 publications

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Comparison between upwind and downwind designs of a 10 MW wind turbine rotor

Integration of multiple passive load mitigation technologies by automated design optimization—The case study of a medium‐size onshore wind turbine

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