Gust response of aeroelastically tailored wind turbines

Abstract

Some interesting challenges arise from the drive to build larger, more durable rotors that produce cheaper energy. The rationale is that, with current wind turbine designs, the power generated is theoretically proportional to the square of blade length. One enabling technology is aeroelastic tailoring that offers enhanced combined energy capture and system durability. The design of two adaptive, aeroelastically tailored blade configurations is considered here. One uses material bend-twist coupling; the other combines both material and geometric coupling. Each structural design meets a predefined coupling distribution, whilst approximately matching the stiffness of an uncoupled baseline blade. A gust analysis shows beneficial flapwise load alleviation for both adaptive blades, with the additional benefits of smoothing variations in electrical power and rotational speed.