Publications

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The preliminary design for a three-bladed cross-flow rotor for a reference marine hydrokinetic turbine is presented. A rotor performance design code is described, along with modifications to the code to allow prediction of blade support strut drag as well as interference between two counter-rotating rotors. The rotor is designed to operate in a reference site corresponding to a riverine environment. Basic rotor performance and rigid-body loads calculations are performed to size the rotor elements and select the operating speed range. The preliminary design is verified with a simple finite element model that provides estimates of bending stresses during operation. A concept for joining the blades and support struts is developed and analyzed with a separate finite element analysis. Rotor mass, production costs, and annual energy capture are estimated in order to allow calculations of system cost-of-energy. Evaluation Only. Created with Aspose.Pdf.Kit. Copyright 2002-2011 Aspose Pty Ltd Evaluation Only. Created with Aspose.Pdf.Kit. Copyright 2002-2011 Aspose Pty Ltd

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The shear webs and laminates of core panels of wind turbine blades must be designed to avoid panel buckling while minimizing blade weight. Typically, buckling resistance is evaluated by consideration of the load-deflection behavior of a blade using finite element analysis (FEA) or full-scale static loading of a blade to failure under a simulated extreme loading condition. This paper examines an alternative means for evaluating blade buckling resistance using non-destructive modal tests or FEA. In addition, panel resonances can be utilized for structural health monitoring by observing changes in the modal parameters of these panel resonances, which are only active in a portion of the blade that is susceptible to failure. Additionally, panel resonances are considered for updating of panel laminate model parameters by correlation with test data. During blade modal tests conducted at Sandia Labs, a series of panel modes with increasing complexity was observed. This paper reports on the findings of these tests, describes potential ways to utilize panel resonances for blade evaluation, health monitoring, and design, and reports recent numerical results to evaluate panel resonances for use in blade structural health assessment.

The shear webs and laminates of core panels of wind turbine blades must be designed to avoid panel buckling while minimizing blade weight. Typically, buckling resistance is evaluated by consideration of the load-deflection behavior of a blade using finite element analysis (FEA) or full-scale static loading of a blade to failure under a simulated extreme loading condition. This paper examines an alternative means for evaluating blade buckling resistance using non-destructive modal tests or FEA. In addition, panel resonances can be utilized for structural health monitoring by observing changes in the modal parameters of these panel resonances, which are only active in a portion of the blade that is susceptible to failure. Additionally, panel resonances are considered for updating of panel laminate model parameters by correlation with test data. During blade modal tests conducted at Sandia Labs, a series of panel modes with increasing complexity was observed. This paper reports on the findings of these tests, describes potential ways to utilize panel resonances for blade evaluation, health monitoring, and design, and reports recent numerical results to evaluate panel resonances for use in blade structural health assessment.

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The principal design drivers in the certification of wind turbine blades are ultimate strength, fatigue resistance, adequate tip-tower clearance, and buckling resistance. Buckling resistance is typically strongly correlated to both ultimate strength and fatigue resistance. A composite shell with spar caps forms the airfoil shape of a blade and reinforcing shear webs are placed inside the blade to stiffen the blade in the flap-wise direction. The spar caps are dimensioned and the shear webs are placed so as to add stiffness to unsupported panel regions and reduce their length. The panels are not the major flap-wise load carrying element of a blade; however, they must be designed carefully to avoid buckling while minimizing blade weight. Typically, buckling resistance is evaluated by consideration of the load-deflection behavior of a blade using finite element analysis (FEA) or full-scale static testing of blades under a simulated extreme loading condition. The focus of this paper is on the use of experimental modal analysis to measure localized resonances of the blade panels. It can be shown that the resonant behavior of these panels can also provide a means to evaluate buckling resistance by means of analytical or experimental modal analysis. Further, panel resonances have use in structural health monitoring by observing changes in modal parameters associated with panel resonances, and use in improving panel laminate model parameters by correlation with test data. In recent modal testing of wind turbine blades, a set of panel modes were measured. This paper will report on the findings of these tests and accompanying numerical and analytical modeling efforts aimed at investigating the potential uses of panel resonances for blade evaluation, health monitoring, and design.

The blades of a modern wind turbine are critical components central to capturing and transmitting most of the load experienced by the system. They are complex structural items composed of many layers of fiber and resin composite material and typically, one or more shear webs. Large turbine blades being developed today are beyond the point of effective trial-and-error design of the past and design for reliability is always extremely important. Section analysis tools are used to reduce the three-dimensional continuum blade structure to a simpler beam representation for use in system response calculations to support full system design and certification. One model simplification approach is to analyze the two-dimensional blade cross sections to determine the properties for the beam. Another technique is to determine beam properties using static deflections of a full three-dimensional finite element model of a blade. This paper provides insight into discrepancies observed in outputs from each approach. Simple two-dimensional geometries and three-dimensional blade models are analyzed in this investigation. Finally, a subset of computational and experimental section properties for a full turbine blade are compared.

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The focus of this paper is on the development of validated models for wind turbine blades. Validation of these models is a comprehensive undertaking which requires carefully designing and executing experiments, proposing appropriate physics-based models, and applying correlation techniques to improve these models based on the test data. This paper will cover each of these three aspects of model validation, although the focus is on the third - model calibration. The result of the validation process is an understanding of the credibility of the model when used to make analytical predictions. These general ideas will be applied to a wind turbine blade designed, tested, and modeled at Sandia National Laboratories. The key points of the paper include discussions of the tests which are needed, the required level of detail in these tests to validate models of varying detail, and mathematical techniques for improving blade models. Results from investigations into calibrating simplified blade models are presented.

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Signal and power harnesses on spacecraft buses and payloads can alter structural dynamics, as has been noted in previous flight programs. The community, however, has never undertaken a thorough study to understand the impact of harness dynamics on spacecraft structures. The Air Force Research Laboratory is leading a test and analysis program to develop fundamental knowledge of how spacecraft harnesses impact dynamics and develop tools that structural designers could use to achieve accurate predictions of cable-dressed structures. The work described in this paper involved a beam under simulated free boundary conditions that served as a validation test bed for model development.

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A technique published in SAND Report 2006-1789 ''Model Reduction of Systems with Localized Nonlinearities'' is illustrated in two problems of finite element structural dynamics. That technique, called here the Method of Locally Discontinuous Basis Vectors (LDBV), was devised to address the peculiar difficulties of model reduction of systems having spatially localized nonlinearities. It's illustration here is on two problems of different geometric and dynamic complexity, but each containing localized interface nonlinearities represented by constitutive models for bolted joint behavior. As illustrated on simple problems in the earlier SAND report, the LDBV Method not only affords reduction in size of the nonlinear systems of equations that must be solved, but it also facilitates the use of much larger time steps on problems of joint macro-slip than would be possible otherwise. These benefits are more dramatic for the larger problems illustrated here. The work of both the original SAND report and this one were funded by the LDRD program at Sandia National Laboratories.

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This test report covers the SNL modal test results for two nominally identical TX-100 wind turbine blades. The TX-100 blade design is unique in that it features a passive braking, force-shedding mechanism where bending and torsion are coupled to produce desirable aerodynamic characteristics. A specific aim of this test is to characterize the coupling between bending and torsional dynamics. The results of the modal tests and the subsequent analysis characterize the natural frequencies, damping, and mode shapes of the individual blades. The results of this report are expected to be used for model validation--the frequencies and mode shapes from the experimental analysis can be compared with those of a finite-element analysis. Damping values are included in the results of these tests to potentially improve the fidelity of numerical simulations, although numerical finite element models typically have no means of predicting structural damping characteristics. Thereafter, an additional objective of the test is achieved in evaluating the test to test and unit variation in the modal parameters of the two blades.