An analytical model for deformation analysis of wind turbine adaptive blades

Abstract

An analytical model capable of predicting the induced deformation due to the presence of bend-twist and stretch-twist elastic couplings in multi-cell closed thin walled beams with arbitrary cross-sections is presented. For various structural and material configurations, the results obtained by the developed model are compared with the results of the finite element analysis. It is shown that the developed analytical model provides reasonable accuracy in predicting induced twist. The developed model is implemented in an aero-structure simulation environment for simulation of wind turbines utilising adaptive blades. © 2012 WIT Press.