A study on coupled bending and torsional vibrations of wind turbine blades

Abstract

A parametric study is developed to investigate the effect of geometry, material stiffness and the rotational motion on the coupled flapwise bending and torsional vibration modes of a wind turbine blade. The assumed modes method is used to discretize the derived kinetic and potential energy terms. Lagrange's equations are used to derive the modal equations from the discretized terms, which are solved for the vibration frequencies. The parametric study utilizes dimensional analysis techniques to study the collective influence of the investigated parameters by combining them into few non-dimensional parameters, thus providing deeper insight to the physics of the dynamic response. Results would be useful in providing rules and guidelines to be used in blade design. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.