Open AccessInvestigation of flutter for large, highly flexible wind turbine blades
Author(s) -
Christopher Kelley,
Joshua Paquette
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1618/5/052078
Subject(s) - flutter , algorithm , computer science , artificial intelligence , aerodynamics , physics , mechanics
Improvements to the Sandia blade aeroelastic stability tool have been implemented to predict flutter for large, highly flexible wind turbine blade designs. The aerodynamic lift and moment caused by harmonic edge-wise motion are now included, but did not change the flutter solution, even for highly flexible blades. Flutter analysis of future, large blade designs is presented based on scaling trends. The analysis shows that flutter speed decreases at a rate similar to maximum rotor speed for increasing blade sizes: Ω f l u t t e r ∞ Ω r a t e d ∞ 1 L . This indicates the flutter margin is not directly affected by blade length. Rather, it was innovative design technology choices that predicted flutter in previous studies. A 100 m blade, flexible enough to be rail transported, was analyzed and it exhibited soft flutter below rated rotor speed. This indicated that excessive fatigue damage may occur due to limit cycle oscillations for blades that incorporate highly flexible designs.