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DesignandFiniteElementAnalysisofHorizontalAxisWindTurbine blade
NitinTenguria
1
,Mittal.N.D
1
,SirajAhmed
2
1DepartmentofAppliedMechanics,MaulanaAzadNationalInstituteofTechnology,
Bhopal,India
2DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering,MaulanaAzadNationalInstituteofTechnology,
Bhopal,India
nitintenguria@yahoo.co.in
ABSTRACT
Thewindturbinebladeisa veryimportantpartoftherotor.Extractionofenergy fromwind
depends on the design of blade. In this work a blade of length 38.95m for V821.65MW
horizontal axis wind turbine (supplied by Vestas) is designed by Glauert's optimal rotor
theory. A computer program is developed for getting the dimension (Twist, chord and
thickness).TheairfoiltakenforthebladeisNACA63
4
221.Theairfoil takenissamefrom
roottotip.Theanalysisofdesignedbladeisdoneinflapwiseloading.Thespartakeninthis
workisofsquarecrosssectionfromroottotipoftheblade.Thebladeandsparareofsame
composite material. The Finite element analysis of designed blade is done in ANSYS. This
work is focused on the two segments of blade, root segment and transition segment. Result
obtainedfromANSYSiscomparedwiththepreviouslydoneexperimentalwork.
Keywords:Design,Material,Chord,Twist,Blade.
1.Introduction
Wind turbines are subjected to very specific loads and stresses. Due to the nature of wind,
loadsarehighlyvariable.Varyingloadsaremoredifficulttohandlethanstaticloadsbecause
the material becomes fatigued. Moreover as a working medium the air is of low density so
thatthesurfacerequiredforcapturingenergymustbelarge.Whendesigningawindturbine,
theaimistoattainthehighestpossiblepoweroutputunderparticularatmosphericconditions
and this depends on the shape of the blade. The change of the shape of blade is one of the
methods to modify stiffness and stability, but it may influence aerodynamic efficiency of
windturbine.Othermethodtochangedynamicandmechanicalpropertiesofwindturbineis
modifyingthecompositematerial,whichthebladeismadeof.
Author(JensenF.M.etal.,2006)workedonstructuralanalysisandnumericalsimulationof
34 m composite wind turbine blade, the material taken in his work is Glass Epoxy. Author
(JensenF.M.etal.,2006)observedtheovalizationofthe loadcarryingboxgirderinthefull
scaletest.AglobalnonlinearFEmodeloftheentirebladewaspreparedandtheboundaries
to a more detailed submodel were extracted. The FEmodel was calibrated based on full
scale test measurements. A probabilistic model for analysis of the safety of a windturbine
rotorbladeagainstfailureinultimateloadingispresentedby (RonoldKuntOetal.,2000).In
his work he only considered the failure in flapwise bending during the normal operating
condition of the windturbine. The model is basedon an extremevalue analysis of the load
response process in conjunction with a stochastic representation of the governing tensile
strength of the rotor blade material. The probability of failure in flapwise bending of the
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rotorbladeiscalculatedbymeansofafirstorderreliabilitymethod,andcontributionstothis
probability from all local maxima of the load response process over the operational life are
integrated.Author(JureczkoM.etal.,2005)tooktheproblemofthemulticriteriaoptimum
designofwindturbineblades.Hedevelopedacomputerprogrampackagethatwouldenable
optimizationofwindturbinebladeswithregardtoanumberofcriteria.
Inthiswork,abladeoflength38.95m.isdesignedfor1.65MWhorizontalaxiswindturbine
withthehelpofGlauert'soptimalrotortheory.Finiteelementanalysisofthebladestructure
isdoneinANSYSsoftwareandresultsarecomparedwiththeworkdoneby (JensenF.M.et
al., 2006). In this work, the material taken is EGlass/Epoxy prepreg material and the
propertiestakenfromtheworkof (Brndstedetal., 2005).
2.ComputationalMethods
The finite element method (FEM) is very useful and has traditionally been used in the
development of wind turbine blades for investigating the global behaviour in terms of, for
example,eigenfrequencies,tipdeflections,andglobalstress/strainlevels.TheFEsimulation
usually predicts the global stiffness and stresses with a highquality accuracy. Local
deformations and stresses are often more difficult to predict and little work has been
publishedinthisarea.Thereasonisthatthehighlylocaliseddeformationsandstressescanbe
nonlinear,whiletheglobalresponseappearslinearforrelatively smalldeflections.Another
reason is that a relatively simple shell model can be used for representing the global
behaviour, while a computationally more expensive 3Dsolid model may be necessary to
predict this localisedbehaviour. Even with a highly detailed 3D solid model it wouldrarely
be possible to predict deformations or stresses accurately without calibration of the FE
model. This calibration is required due to large manufacturing tolerances. Features such as
box girder corners and adhesive joints often vary from specifications. Geometric
imperfections are often seen and can cause unexpected behaviour, especially relating to the
strengthpredictionsbutalsothelocaldeformationscanbeaffected.Abigadvantageofusing
FEMisthat,oncethemodelissetupandcalibrated, complexloadcasesrepresentingactual
windconditionscanbeanalyzed.Onlyidealisedloadscanbeimposedinafullscaletestand
in this paperthe critical flapwise load case isevaluated.The FE modelof the wind turbine
bladewithaNACA63
4
221airfoiliscreatedusingAPDLlanguageinANSYS.Thecreated
modelofthebladeconsistsof141117elements,138139nodesand176areasmeshed.The8
noded shell 63 element type with 6 degrees of freedom has been used with an element
thicknessprovided30mm.
3.Twist,ChordandThicknessDistribution
Thetwistofawindturbinebladeisdefinedintermsofthechordline.Itisasynonymforthe
pitch angle. However the twist defines the pitch settings at each station along the blade
accordingtothelocalflowconditions.Thepitchangle()islargeneartheroot(wherelocal
speedsarelow),andsmallatthetip(wherelocalspeedsarehigh).Theapparentwindangle
changesalongthebladeduetotheincreaseinbladespeedwithincreasingdistanceoutboard.
Hence to maintain optimum angle of attack of the blade section to the wind, it must be
twisted along its length. According to (Hau, 2006) the twist distribution is maintained such
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thattheliftcoefficientwillbemaximumateverystation.Chorddirectionisperpendicularto
the span direction and lies in the plane extending through the leading edge and the trailing
edge. A shoulder is the point where chord is maximum and it is minimum at the tip of the
blade.Stressesaremaximumatthebladerootsothatthebladerootisthethickestportionof
the blade. The thickness distribution is calculated in terms of the chord where the total
thickness of the blade at any station will be apercentage of the chord length atthat station.
Figure 1 shows the chord distribution for the blade. Figure 2 and 3 shows the twist and
thickness distribution for the blade. Both chord and thickness are reducing from root to tip.
Thechordiscalculatedontheconceptusedby(Ryu,2004).
Radialdistance
0 10 20 30 40
C
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o
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d

(
m
)

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Radialdistance
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Figure1:Chorddistribution Figure2: Twistdistribution
Radialdistance
0 10 20 30 40
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k
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m
)

0.2
0.4
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Figure3: ThicknessDistribution
4.BladeProperties
The aerodynamic profiles of wind turbine blades have vital control on aerodynamic
efficiency of wind turbine. However, when blades are longer than 45m the dynamic
behaviouroftheblademustbealsotakenintoaccount.Then,thepositionandshapeofspars
have to be considered and analysed. In the article (OneDimensional Variations, 2003) it is
given that the location of the main spar with the locationof the stiffening ribs will have the
biggesteffectonthebendingmodesoftheblade.Themodelofblade(seeFigure4)madeof
shellelementisusedinthiswork.Accordingto(Guidelines,2002),thebladeistobetwisted
aroundtheelasticaxis.Thepositionofelasticcentrecanbevariedbymodifyingthelocation
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ofspars and its shape.The geometry of blade is modelled in ANSYS toobtain the required
properties of the blade and position of spars. The blade is divided into 19 sections. But the
questionisthat,whatwillbethepositionofsparsiftheyarealsotwisted.Theansweristhat
theyarenottwistedinsimilarwayasaerofoils.Thecommercialbladesdonothavethespars
positioned in this kind. The reason is the aerodynamic damping phenomena. Twist of the
blade decides about value of aerodynamic loads, and also the direction in which the blade
willvibrate.Inthisworkthesparisalsotwistedaccordingtoairfoil.Thebladewithtwisted
sparsisdisplayedinFigure5.
Figure4: Blademodel Figure5: Twistedbladewithspar
5.ResultandDiscussion
Author(JensenF.M.atel.,2006)preparedamodelusingshellandbrickelementanditwas
developed for a spanwise segment of the blade. He found that 013 m segment is most
criticalpartforfinalfailure.Theboundaryconditionusedinhissubmodelwasbasedonthe
displacement field taken from global FEmodel. Generally the linear displacement field is
used in submodeling techniques but in his case this technique can not be used since
nonlinear effect dominate. The explanation as to why the use of a non linear displacement
fieldisrequiredevenatmoderatenonlinearity,isgiven.
Author (Jensen F.M. at el., 2006) worked on the blade manufactured by SSP
TechnologyA/Sandthelengthofbladeinhisworkis34m.TheSSPbladeismadeofglass
epoxyprepergmaterialandisdesignedwithloadcarryingboxgirdershowninfigure6.
Figure6: Bladewithaloadcarryingmainspar.(JensenF.M.atel.)[3]
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Inthiswork,thebladeispreparedinwith aNACA63
4
221airfoil usingAPDLlanguagein
ANSYS and spar taken is of square shape. Shell element is used forboth sections shown in
figure7.
Figure 7: Bladewithloadcarryingspar
5.1GeometricDeformations
Differentdeformation patternswereobservedby(Jensen,2006)duringthefull scaletest.In
hiswork,hedividedthebladeof34mlengthintothreesegments
Rootsegment(04m)
Transitionsegment(48m)fromroottoboxgirdersegment
Boxgirdersegment(834 m)
Inthiswork,thebladelengthis38.95mandthisworkisfocusedinthetwosegments
Rootsegment(04.1m)
Transitionsegment(4.18.2m)
Intheexperimentalworkdoneby(Jensen,2006)partofthewebdeformationaredueto
thegravity load,whichcausesthewebtoshowanonsymmetricbehaviorbeforeloading.A
sketchofnonsymmetricwebdeflectionisgiveninFigure8(Jansen,2006)andthedeflection
measurementisgiveninFigure9(Jansen,2006).
Figure8:Sketchofnonsymmetric Figure9:Relativewebdeflectionversusload
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Inthiswork,webdeflectionisshowninfigure10atadistance4.1mfromrootwhichisthe
rootsegmentoftheblade.Gravityloadisnotconsideredinthiswork,deflectionismeasured
inANSYS.Boundaryconditionstakeninthisworkarethesameastakenby (Jensen,2006).
Thebladeshowsthesymmetricbehaviorinthiswork.
Load(%ofultimate)
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
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[
m
m
]

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8
10
Leading
Trailing
Figure10: Relativewebdeflectionat4.1mversusload
Author(Jensen, 2006)observed the large change in the cap curvature and cap height in his
experimental work in the transition segment. Outward cap deformations were measured
during the full scale test shown in figure 11. Figure 12 shows the cap deformation of the
bladeinflapwiseloadingcondition.
Figure11:Outwardcapdeformation measured.
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Load(%ofultimate)
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
R
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[
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m
]

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Figure12: Outwardcapdeformation8.2fromroot
6.Conclusion
In this work a horizontal axis wind turbine blade is designed with the help of Glauert's
optimal rotor theory, a computer program is developed for getting the chord, thickness and
twist distribution while maintaining the lift coefficient constant throughout the blade. The
bladeisdividedinto19sectionsandeachsectionhasthesamelength.Bladeismodeledwith
APDL language in ANSYS with airfoil NACA 63
4
221. Material taken for the blade is E
Glassepoxy.TheanalysisofthebladeisperformedinANSYS.Thisworkiscomparedwith
theexperimentalworkinwhichthebehaviorofblade isnotsymmetric.Aswecanseefrom
graph above the behavior of blade in this work is symmetric. The lengths of the segments
taken in this aredifferent from the experimental workbut there is very minute difference in
thedeflectionsofcapandwebforthesameloadingcondition.
7.References
1. Brndsted P., Lilholt, H., Lystrup, Aa. (2005). Composite materials for wind power
turbineblades.MaterialsResearchDepartment.RisNationalLaboratory.
2. Guidelines for Design of Wind Turbines, second ed., Det Norske Veritas and Riso
NationalLaboratory,JydskCentraltrykkeri,Denmark,2002.
3. Hau. E.(2006) Wind Turbines Fundamental, Technologies, Application, Economics.
Krailling,Springer.
4. Jensen F.M., Falzon B.G., Ankersen J., Stang H.,2006, Structural testing and
numerical simulation of a 34 m composite wind turbine blade. Composite structure
76:pp 52 61.
5. Jureczko M.,Pawlak M., and Mezyk A.,2005, Optimization of wind turbine blades.
Material processingandtechnology167:pp 463471.
6. OneDimensional Variations: Blades, Dutch Offshore Wind Energy Converter
Project,LMGlasfiberHollandBV,2003.
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7. Ronold Kunt O., Larsen Gunner C.,2000, Reliability baseddesign of wind turbine
rotorbladesagainstfailureinultimateloading.EngineeringStructures22:565 574.
8. RyuJ.Y.andD.H.Kim(2004).Bladedesignofa360KWDirectdrivewindturbine
generatorsystem.ProceedingofACCM4,Sydney.