MATHEMATICS IN ENGINEERING, SCIENCE AND AEROSPACE

MESA - www.journalmesa.com
Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 249-264, 2013
c CSP - Cambridge, UK; I&S - Florida, USA, 2013
An aeroelastic model for horizontal axis wind turbines
Florin FRUNZULICA
1,
, Alexandru DUMITRACHE
2
, Horia DUMITRESCU
2
1
POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Polizu 1-6, RO-
011061, Bucharest, Romania,
2
Gheorghe Mihoc - Caius Iacob Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Applied Mathematics,
P.O. Box 1-24,RO-010145, Bucharest, Romania.

Corresponding Author. E-mail: ffrunzi@yahoo.com

Dedicated to the memory of late Professor Mihai Popescu.
Abstract. In this paper an advanced aeroelastic numerical tool for horizontal axis wind turbines
(HAWT) is presented. The tool is created by coupling an unsteady aerodynamic model based on the
vortex method (using the vortex ring model for the lifting surface coupled with an unsteady free-wake
vortex particle model) with an elastodynamic model based on the beam approximation. The coupling
is non-linear in the sense that at every time step the two models interact through data transfer from
the one to the other. The aeroelastic model is evaluated through comparisons of its predictions with
experimental data as well as with predictions obtained by simpler models.
1 Introduction
The design problem of horizontal axis wind turbines is related to a number of physical processes of
varying complexity. Due to the non-linear as well as stochastic (in some aspects), nature of these
processes, a number of simplications have been introduced up to now. Most of them lead to the
decoupling of the various processes in order to treat them separately. In this connection, there are two
dominant model problems: the aerodynamic problem and the elastodynamic one. Their combination
leads to the aeroelastic problem of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT)[1]. Input to this problem is
the wind inow conditions. The solution of the aerodynamic and aeroelastic problems can be used to
provide useful information to a number of design problems. Thus, the post-processing of the results
can lead to a fatique and reability analysis, the analysis of wake effects for the design of wind parks,
the prediction of power uctuations, etc.
In this work, the authors present a non-linear advanced aeroelastic model based on a vortex method
as regards the aerodynamics, and a beam structural model adapted to this problem.
2010
Mathematics Subject Classication: 76G25, 74B20, 74S05
Keywords: vortex lattice method, beam theory, nite elements method, aeroelasticity, HAWT.
250 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
2 The numerical method
The key point of the approach adopted herein is based on the formulation of the aeroelastic problem
as an appropriate coupling of two different problems: the aerodynamic and the elastodynamic. In
brief, the aerodynamic part aims at the calculation of the loads exercised on the structure due to the
dynamics of the surrounding uid.
The loads are then introduced as forcing to the elastodynamic equations where from the defor-
mations, the rates of deformations and the accelerations are calculated along the blade. The rates of
deformations are feed back into the aerodynamic part as excess body velocities of the blade (in addi-
tion to the rigid body motions). This results in a modication of the non-entry boundary condition for
the aerodynamic part that represents the effects of exibility on the uid dynamics.
Regarding the wind turbine and its surrounding uid as one mechanical system, it is clear that
the procedure just outlined denes a two-way channel of communication between the two parts of
the system. This communication is achieved by means of two interfaces: one for the transfer of the
aerodynamic loads from the aerodynamics to the elastodynamic part, and one for the transfer of the
rats of deformations from the elastodynamics to the aerodynamic part. Note that in both cases the data
that are transferred concern solely the solid surface of the blades, i.e. the domain of contact between
and the solid part of the system. This is always the case regardless the type of approximation used
for the either the uid or the solid. In what follows, the ow problem is approximated by a free-wake
aerodynamic model, whereas the elastic part is modeled by the beam approximation.
2.1 The aerodynamic model
For rotor computations, the blades element momentum methods are easily understandable and appli-
cable, using minimum computation requirements [1,2]. Anyhow, there are cases when these methods
do not provide the desired precision. The design interest cases include asymmetric aerodynamic un-
steady ow (especially the dynamic effects of incident ow). An evident alternative is the detailed
computation of the induced velocities eld, based on the wake vortex distribution [3,4,5,6]. The
vortex methods are interesting, even while requiring signicant computation resources, due to their
possibility to observe the vortex systems main structure. In the following sections, we will present
a calculation algorithm where the near-wake strip elements are transformed into vortex particles and
become part of the far-wake. Integrating the vorticity of each near-wake dipole element produces a
vortex particle. The new vortex particles became part of the far wake which evolves prior to the next
time step using a Lagrangean description of the ow .
Hypothesis. The working uid is a continuous barotropic ideal uid which lls an unlimited,
simple, contiguous domain

. In the ow is adiabatic and non-rotational, where =

R
.
The domain
R
is the rotational ow domain (i.e. for a blade this is represented by the solid blade
surface and the wake ow- eld domain).
The blades have a rotational motion related to the reference system attached to the airow speed
direction. In the calculation points the velocity is given by sum of three components: the cinematic
velocity corresponding to blade motion, the induced velocities and the wake induced velocities. The
generated free wake is attached to the leading edge of the blade.
The time steps are chosen so that vortexes generated by the trailing/leading edge should not trans-
ported on distance greater than the smallest panel dimension.
The Vortex Lattice Method (VLM).When the blades lifting surface has a relatively reduced thick-
ness (valid for most free rotor blades) it might be selected a scientic method requiring the vortex ring
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 251
distribution on a surface built by means of the generatrix camber line. Therefore the numeric calcula-
tion can determine the pressure jump p = p
i
p
e
between upper and lower surfaces.
Figure 1 shows the blade decomposing into panels. The vortex element on the panel at front edge is
located at of the panels chord, while the collocation point is located at of panels chord. Numerically,
the vortex rings are stored in a matrix with the indexes i and j. Each vortex ring is perfectly sitting on
the mean wing surface, to enable a correct representation from the mathematical point of view. The
induced velocity in a control point P is calculated with the Biot-Savart formula [3].
Fig. 1 Discretization of the blade into panels (a) and vortex rings distribution (b).
To determine the vortex rings intensities,
i, j
, it will be imposed that the resulting speed in the
calculation point shall be tangent to the mean blade surface:
(
M

i=1
N

j=1
(V
ind,P
(t,
i, j
))
i, j
+
M
w,TE

i=1
N

j=1
(V
w,P
(t,
i, j
))
i, j
+
M

w,TE

j=1
V
w,P
(t,
j
)) n
P
= V
k,P
(t) n
P
(2.1)
where M and N are the number of panels along the chord, respectively along the wing span, M
w,TE
represent the number of free vortexes in each closed wake strip generated by the trailing edge and
M

w,TE
represent the number of particles generated in the wake by the trailing edge (the formula (1)
includes the wake separation at leading edge for high angle of attack). Numerically, we will consider
a nite wake (about 3 rotor diameters). Vortexes generated at the leading and trailing edges for each
nearby adjacent panel will change their intensity in time and will move in space with local airow
speed. Equation (2.1) provides (at each time step) a linear algebraic system A = b. Solving this
system by an exact or iterative method enables to determine the vortex rings intensity
i, j
, i=1,...,M,
j=1...N. Matrix A is the inuence coefcients matrix, while vector b is the right side of equation (2.1).
Leading Edge Wake Model. To take into account the leading edge stall there is necessary to know
the wake vortex near the leading edge at any time. Physically the phenomenon is a consequence of
high incidence viscous owand to introduce it in the numerical algorithmthe ONERAmethod applies
[1,7]. This gives the changes of the
s
circulation, while on blade elements (element strips along the
chord), under stall conditions, by solving a second order differential equation:

s
+

s
+
r

s
=
r

2
V
t
C
L

V
n
(2.2)
where = 2V
t
/c, c is the blade element chord, V
t
is the velocity component along the chord,V
n
is the
chord normal velocity component, C
L
is the lift coefcient difference between potential ow and
stationary ow. Dumitrescu et al. present in detail the empiric coefcients r, E, [1].
To determine C
L
it is necessary to nd out each blade elements local angle of incidence. Usually,
this is the global angle of incidence for a ow completely attached to the blade.
252 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
The differential equation (2.2) applied for each blade element enables determination of the rst
vortex ring in the leading edge generated wake, representing the support of the wake particles carrying
vortices.

TE

LE
= (
at
+
s
) (2.3)
where
TE
is the trailing edge circulation, while
at
is circulation corresponding to the ow fully
attached along the local blade strip.
The Trailing Edge Wake Model. Expressing the (far) wake with particles means that each particle
is dened by its position x
i
, its vortices
i
and its kernel radius
i
[4,7]. Thus, the local vorticity in
wake can be determined with the formula:

w
(x, t) =

i
(t) g(xx
i
(t),
i
(t)) (2.4)
where g represents the vortices distribution function for the particle i (i = 1...N
w,p
), while
i
is the
length dening the particle kernels support domain. In three-dimensional space, the function g has
the expression [5]:
g(r, ) =
3
4
3
exp
(
(|r| /)
3
)
(2.5)
Thus, the speed induced in a point by a set of particles will be:
V
w
(x, t) =
1
4

w
(xx

)
w
(x

, t)
|xx

|
3
d

=
1
4
N
w,p

i=1

i
(t) (xx
i
)
|xx
i
|
3
f (xx
i
,
i
) (2.6)
where: f (r, ) = 1exp
(
(|r| /)
3
)
.
Therefore, the evolution of a vortex lattice is reduced to the calculation of a particles assembly, j:
Dx
j
(t)
Dt
= V(x
j
, t) ,
D
j
(t)
Dt
= (
j
(t) )V(x
j
, t) (2.7)
where V is the total uid velocity in the point x
j
.
For a time period t, the Adams-Bashforth formula is approximating the trajectory of a uid
particle:
x
j
(t +t) = x
j
(t) +[1.5 V(x
j
(t), t) 0.5 V(x
j
(t t), t t)] t (2.8)
Changing a particles kernel radius due to viscous diffusion is similarly to the viscous diffusion of
a vortex lament in a plan perpendicularly to this lament:
D
Dt
=
c
2

2
t
, c = 2, 242 (2.9)
with the kernel radius at time, t+t determined by the relation:
|
t+t
| = |
t
| (
t
/
t+t
)
2
(2.10)
In applications, the near wake is including a single vortex ring line, usually the one generated by
the trailing edge TE (a similar approach is available also for the leading edge ,LE, wake). Figure 2
shows the particles transforming algorithm.
At the time moment t, calculation to solving the system A =b, provides the circulation intensity
of the vortex ring
t
m1, j
and of the neighbor rings, the location of the cross points 1 and 2 being from
the previous time step:
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 253
Fig. 2 Generation of a TE vortex ring (a), convection and transformation in an equivalent particle (b).
x
1
= x
m, j
+V
tt
m, j
t , x
2
= x
m, j+1
+V
tt
m, j+1
t (2.11)
On the edges 14 and 23, the effective circulation is equally distributed between the panels adja-
cent to these edges, while on edge 12 the circulation is provided by the difference between current
intensities and those of the previous time moment. The new positions of the cross points dening the
panel 1234 is determined for each time step with the equation:
x

i
= x
i
+V
t
i
t , i = 1, 2, 3, 4 (2.12)
If
S
is the panel S vorticity (in its new position),
S
(x) =
S

dx, then the particles j vorticity

associated to panel, S, is determined with the relation:

j
=

S
d (2.13)
while the particles position in time will be determined with the relation:
x
j

j
=

S
x
S
d (2.14)
The transport of the new particle jis further done according to the equations (2.7).
Blade pressure calculation. To determine the pressure difference on the blade we will decompose
the local velocity V on the blade surface, panel (i,j), related to two directions:
i
(tangent direction
oriented along the chord) and tau
j
(tangent direction along the span). Dening the characteristic
length for a panel (i,j) along the chord and the span, c
i, j
and b
i, j
, the pressure difference will be
provided by the equation [1,3]:
p
i, j
=
{
(V
p
)
i, j

i

i, j

i1, j
c
i, j
+(V
P
)
i, j

j

i, j

i, j1
b
i, j
+

i, j
t
}
(2.15)
while the force on the panel (i,j) will be provided by:
F
i, j
= p
i, j
n
i, j
S
i, j
=D
i, j
i +F
y
i, j
j +L
i, j
k (2.16)
The next phase of the aerodynamic computation consists of calculations of blade forces. The rst
is the tangential force per unit blade length F

t
acting along the chord line of a blade element in the
direction of motion. The second is the normal force per unit blade length F

n
acting in the direction of
the unit vector normal to the chord line. A complete set of two dimensional aerodynamic forces would
also include a pitching moment about the spanwise axis. In general this moment is small and is thus
neglected. From (2.16) we can compute in spanwise direction, lift coefcient C
L
and drag coefcient
C
D
(including given airfoil drag and locally induced drag).
254 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
2.2 The elastodynamic model
The aspect ratio of wind turbine blades is, usually large and, therefore, beam theory can be used
to describe, the elastodynamic behaviour of the blade. Let O[X
e
,Y
e
, Z
e
]denote the beam coordinate
system.and it is assumed that the elastic axis is straight and coincides with axis Y
e
.
The beam theory. In this model three types of deformations are introduced:
x
(y)- the bending
deformation along Y
e
direction (apwise bending),
z
(y)- the bending deformation along Z
e
direction
(leadwise bending) and
y
(y)- the spanwise torsional deformation [8,9].
According to the linear beam theory, the equations for the equilibrium of forces and moments in
the (XZ)
e
plane are as follows:

2
y
2
(
EI
z

x
y
2
)
+

x
t
2
z
cm

y
t
2
+ f
xa
+ f
xg
+ f
xc
= 0 (2.17)

2
y
2
(
EI
x

z
y
2
)
+

z
t
2
x
cm

y
t
2
+ f
za
+ f
zg
+ f
zc
= 0 (2.18)

y
(
GI
t

y
y
)

(
I
p

y
t
2
+x
cm

z
t
2
z
cm

x
t
2
)
+m
ya
+m
yg
+m
yc
= 0 (2.19)
where: E (y)- the Young modulus (N/m
2
), G(y)- the shear modulus (N/m
2
), (y)- the linear density
(kg/m), x
cm
- the distance of the mass center from Z
e
axis (m), z
cm
- the distance of the mass center
from X
e
axis (m), I
x
(y)- the moment of inertia about X
e
axis (m
4
), I
z
(y)- the moment of inertia about
Z
e
axis (m
4
), I
p
(y)- the polar moment of inertia about the elastic center (m
4
),I
t
(y)- St. Venant tor-
sional moment of inertia (m
4
), f (y) the bending distributed loads (N/m), m(y) the distributed torque
(Nm/m), and subscripts a, g, c denotes the aerodynamic loads, gravitational loads and centrifugal
loads respectively.
The rst step in structural computation is to calculate beam cross-sectional properties of thin-
walled beam, multi-cell, nonhomogeneous, closed sections, within the framework of Bernoullis
bending theory and St. Venant torsion theory [8,9]. The key idea is the approximation of the airfoils
shape by ne straight, homogeneous elements. The thickness of every element is considered constant
and is evenly distributed across the two sides of its midline. For each element, the following data
are necessary: E
e
, G
e
moduli (N/m
2
), density
e
(kg/m
3
), thickness t
e
(m), coordinates of element in
plane (X1
e
, Z1
e
) and (X2
e
, Z2
e
) (gure 3).
Fig. 3 The discretized airfoil.
At the beginning, the coordinates (X1
e
, Z1
e
) and (X2
e
, Z2
e
)can be given with respect to any co-
ordinate system (gure 2), but after the calculation of the elastic center coordinates, we switch to the
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 255
elastic coordinate system. Following the notations of gure 2, the section characteristics are obtained
as follows:
L
e
=

(X2
e
X1
e
)
2
+(Z2
e
Z1
e
)
2
, A
e
= L
e
t
e
, A =
ne

e=1
A
e
(2.20)
E =
ne

e=1
E
e
A
e
/A, G =
ne

e=1
G
e
A
e
/A (2.21)
=
ne

e=1

e
A
e
(2.22)
x
el
=
ne

e=1
E
e
A
e
(X1
e
+X2
e
)
2
1
EA
, z
el
=
ne

e=1
E
e
A
e
(Z1
e
+Z2
e
)
2
1
EA
(2.23)
where A
e
is the elements area, L
e
is the elements length, and ((x
el
, z
el
)) are the coordinates of the
elastic center. Now, the whole analysis is referred to the elastic coordinate system. The remaining
sectional properties are dened as follows:
X
cm
=
ne

e=1

e
A
e
(X1
e
+X2
e
)
2
1
A
, x
cm
= X
cm
x
sc
Z
cm
=
ne

e=1

e
A
e
(Z1
e
+Z2
e
)
2
1
A
, z
cm
= Z
cm
z
sc
(2.24)
where (X
cm
, Z
cm
) are the coordinates of the mass center in the elastic coordinate system, and (x
sc
, z
sc
)
are the coordinates of the shear center in the elastic coordinate system. The calculation of the shear
center will be described later.
St. Venant torsional constant I
t
. The St. Venant torsional constant of a section is dened as:
I
t
= M
t
/(G) (2.25)
where M
t
is the torque that acts on the plane of the section, and is the rate of twist due to this torque.
In the case of a thin-walled, multi-cell section, the calculation of necessitates the calculation of
the shear ows in the skin of the section. For three cells section (gure 4), we apply the following
equations:
-the equation of the equilibrium of moments (Bredt-Batho formula):
2q
1

1
+2q
2

2
+2q
3

3
= M
t
(2.26)
-the equations for the shear ow balance at the junctions:
q
1
= q
4
+q
2
, q
2
= q
3
+q
5
(2.27)
-and the equations for the consistency of torsional deformations for every cell:

1
=
2
=
3
(2.28)
or in extended form
1
2G
1

1
(q
1

1
+q
4

4
) =
1
2G
2

2
(q
2
(
2
+
6
) q
4

4
+q
5

5
) =
1
2G
3

3
(q
3

3
q
5

5
) (2.29)
256 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
where
1
,
2
,
3
are the areas of cells, G
j
the tangential modulus, averaged over cell j, and

j
=

S
j
ds
t
=

iS
j
L
i
t
i
(2.30)
The segment S
j
represents the curvilinear segment where acting the shear ow q
j
, j = 1, 2...6.
Equations (2.26)-(2.29) form a 5x5 system from which the values of q
j
, j =1, 2...6, can be computed.
The torsional specic deformation of the section is equal to the torsional specic deformation of
each one of the cells,
=
1
2G
1

1
(q
1

1
+q
4

4
) (2.31)
and now, I
t
can be obtained by equation (2.25).
Fig. 4 The shear ow for the thin-walled, three cell sections, under twisting moment.
The shear center (SC). The shear center of the section represents the point through which the plane
of the resultant loads must pass to prevent the development of twisting moments on the section. To
calculate the coordinates of the SC we assume that a shearing force T acts through the SC at distance
d from the arbitrary reference point (the elastic center). Our section is three-celled and is three times
statically indeterminate. We perform a cut in each cell and as consequences the structure is reduced
to the thin-walled open section. To restore continuity at every cut, a supplementary shear ow is
introduced in cell i:
q
j
= q
j0
+q

j
(2.32)
where q
j0
is the shear ow at any point of cell j assuming cuts at all cells, and q

j
is the constant
shear ow which is developed if we close the cut of cell j. The shear ow q
j0
is dened as [9]:
q
j0
=
I
x
T
x
I
xz
T
z
I
x
I
z
I
2
xz
Q
z

I
z
T
z
I
xz
T
x
I
x
I
z
I
2
xz
Q
x
(2.33)
where
I
xz
=
1
E
ne

e=1
E
e
A
e
X1
e
+X2
e
2
Z1
e
+Z2
e
2
(2.34)
and
Q
z
=
1
E

s
0
E(s) x t(s) ds, Q
x
=
1
E

s
0
E(s) z t(s) ds (2.35)
In equation (2.33), Q
x
and Q
z
are the only quantities which change from point to point.
We evaluate the shear ow q
j0
from the cut where q
j0
= 0 (the inferior limit of integrals (2.35))
and we continue moving along the correspondent line until we meet a junction. In junction we apply
a balance of shear ow (gure 5); for exemplication, in junction 1 we have
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 257
Fig. 5 The shear ow for the thin-walled, three cell sections, under shear load.
q
1
4
= q
1
1b
q
1
2a
(2.36)
and now, the shear ow q
40
in spar web 1-4 is
q
40
= q
1
4
+
(

I
x
T
x
I
xz
T
z
I
x
I
z
I
2
xz
Q
z

I
z
T
z
I
xz
T
x
I
x
I
z
I
2
xz
Q
x
)
14
(2.37)
The nal shear ow can be interpreted as algebraic sum of the shear ows q
j0
in the opened
section, and the corrective shear ows q

j
applied independently in each cell. The total relative warping
at the three cuts is obviously zero if all cells are closed. Thus, if the rate of twist is set equal to zero,
for cell j we have the following equation:
1
G
j

S
j
q
j
ds
t
=
1
G
j
(

S
j
q

j
ds
t

S
jk
q

k
ds
t

S
ji
q

i
ds
t
+

S
j
q
j0
ds
t
)
= 0 (2.38)
where S
jk
is the web common to cells j and k. If we denote

j0
=
1
G
j

S
j
q
j0
ds
t
,
j j
=
1
G
j

S
j
ds
t
,
ji
=
1
G
j

S
ji
ds
t
,
jk
=
1
G
j

S
jk
ds
t
(2.39)
then the equation (2.38) becomes

ji
q

i
+
j j
q

j
+
jk
q

k
=
j0
(2.40)
and represents a 3x3 system which can be solved with respect to q

i
. Now we can obtain the shear
ow distribution at any point of the section using eq. (2.32). The moment M
0
produced by the shear
ows about the arbitrary reference point (the elastic center) is
M
0
=
ne

e=1
q
e
(X1
e
Z2
e
X2
e
Z1
e
) (2.41)
where q
e
is the shear ow that correspond to the e-th element.
For the x-coordinate of the shear center, an external load in the z direction must be imposed. In
this case:
x
sc
= M
0
/T
z
(2.42)
For the z-coordinate of the shear center, the load is imposed in the x direction:
z
sc
= M
0
/T
x
(2.43)
258 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
The nite element technique. By using Lagrange equations the following linear equations of
motion are obtained [10,11]:
M

D
n
+C

D
n
+KD
n
= R
ext
n
(2.44)
where
-the matrix M =

V
N
T
N dV is the mass matrix
-the matrix C =

V
N
T
C

N
d
dV is the structural damping
-the matrix K =

V
N
T
d
EN
d
dV is the stiffness matrix
-the vector R
ext
is the load vector
-the vector D is the displacement vector, which contains the degrees of freedom:
x
- edgewise
bending,
x
- the bending slope at XY plane,
z
- apwise bending,
z
- the bending slope at ZY
plane,
y
- the torsional deformation at XZ plane, and
-N
d
- the derivative matrix of shape function
-N - the matrix of shape function (the shape functions most commonly used are the third-degree
polynomials and the rst degree in the case of torsion).
The time advancement of the equation (2.44) with the appropriate initial conditions is performed
with the specialized algorithm (Crank-Nicolson) method [10]. This is an unconditionally stable im-
plicit one-step method, which is second order accurate in time and relates the displacements, veloci-
ties, and acceleration as
D
n+1
= D
n
+
t
2
(

D
n
+

D
n+1
)
,

D
n+1
=

D
n
+
t
2
(

D
n
+

D
n+1
)
(2.45)
Subscript n corresponds to the old time and n+1 is the new time. t is the time step. Rearranging
equations (2.45) gives

D
n+1
=
2
t
(D
n+1
D
n
)

D
n
,

D
n+1
=
4
t
2
(D
n+1
D
n
)
4
t

D
n

D
n
(2.46)
By combining equations (2.46) with the equations of motion (2.44) at time t =t
n+1
, we obtain:
K
e f f
D
n+1
= R
e f f
n+1
(2.47)
where the effective stiffness matrix, K
e f f
, and the effective load vector, R
e f f
n+1
, are, respectively,
K
e f f
=
4
t
2
M+
2
t
C+K (2.48)
and
R
e f f
n+1
= R
ext
n+1
+M
(
4
t
2
D
n
+
4
t

D
n
+

D
n
)
+C
(
2
t
D
n
+

D
n
)
(2.49)
2.3 Coupling models
The solution of the aeroelastic problemrequires the coupling of an aerodynamic and an elastodynamic
model. In previous paragraphs a brief description of each part was done separately. In this paragraph
the basic principles of the communication between the two parts will be discussed.
As regards the elastodynamic part, the load vector must be input. This vector is calculated by
superimposing the gravitational forces on the aerodynamic loads. The quantities that have to be trans-
ferred from the aerodynamic part are, therefore, the aerodynamic forces that act on the blade.
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 259
The solution of equation (2.44) yields the vector D of the deformations, the vector

D of the de-
formation rates and the vector

D of the accelerations at the nodes of the beam that simulates the
blade.
The feedback to the aerodynamic part are the deformations rates, which, in the case of non-linear
coupling, are included in the aerodynamic problem along with the body motion velocities. This results
in a change of the effective velocity of the blade seen by the uid. Consequently, the angles of attack
and, therefore, the lift and drag coefcients change.
Within the context of linear elasticity, deformations are assumed small. On the other hand, it is
not expected to encounter considerable deformations on a blade of a wind turbine. Therefore, it is
approximately correct to retain the undeformed geometry of the blade throughout the whole analysis.
The main modules can be summarized in the following owchart (gure 6):
Fig. 6 The owchart of the coupling between aerodynamic and elastodynamic models.
The ow chart of the aeroelastic code has the following steps: (a) initialize code; (b) perform same
pure aerodynamic steps for the calculation of the circulation distribution. For every time step: (c.1)
start time step; (c.2) calculate the aerodynamic forces distribution; (c.3) calculate the force and the
velocity distribution on the blades; (c.4) perform elastodynamic steps for a period of time equal to
aerodynamic time step; (c.5) circulation calculation step; (c.6) go to next time step.
For a non-linear coupling, in the step c.2 the aerodynamic forces is fullled including the rates of
elastodynamic deformations, which have been calculated during the previous time step. In the case of
a linear coupling, there is no feedback from the elastodynamic part to the aerodynamic part.
The only communication between the two parts is in step c.4 where the aerodynamic forces are
imposed on the beam and the elastodynamic problem is solved.
3 Results
3.1 Test case 1: Modal analysis (= 25 rev/min)
In this numerical test we consider a reference blade [10] with complete structure. The blade is dis-
cretized in nite elements (3094 nodes which dene 2985 shells), metallic structures (gure 7). Using
the complete model and equivalent model of the blade structure, we computed the natural frequencies
and modal forms for both models. The rsts ve modes are show comparatively in the gure 8, and
260 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
the correspondent frequencies are summarized in the table 1.
Table 1. The natural frequencies (Hz): beam model vs. complete model.
Mode Complete
structure
Complete structure
with centrifugal ef-
fect
Beam
model
Beam model with
centrifugal effect
Flapwise I 1,208 1,321 1,199 1,318
Flapwise II 2,985 3,23 2,921 3,221
Edgewise I 5,521 5,66 5,486 5,601
Edgewise III 9,128 9,257 9,055 9,193
Torsion I 13,951 14,877 13,804 14,698
Fig. 7 The discretized structure of the blade in nite elements.
3.2 Test case 2: Dynamic response
In this test, we computed the dynamic response of HAWT (the same beam model as the test case 1)
at impulsive wind speed V
w
= 15 m/s (nominal regime 12 m/s, = 25 rev/min) [10]. In the gure
9 we show the wake development at nominal regime. The gure 10 presents the variation of the
displacement and pitch angle at the blade tip, and apwise and edgewise bending moment at the
blade root, as a function of azimuth angle. The oscillations are quickly damping, after 210 degrees.
3.3 Test case 3.
The results presented in the sequel concern the two cases of double pitch steps for the Tjaereborg
HAWT, for which experimental data are available [12] (gure 11). The parameters used for each case
are (table 2): the inow velocity - U

(m/s), the starting time of rst pitch step t

1,st
(s), - the ending
time of rst pitch step t
1,end
(s), the starting time of second pitch step t
2,st
(s), the ending time of
second pitch step t
2,end
(s), the initial pitch angle
1
(deg), the pitch angle after the rst pitch step
2
(deg).
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 261
Fig. 8 The comparison of the modal forms: beam model (b) vs. complete model (a).
Fig. 9 The free-wake of the rotor.
262 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
Fig. 10 Test case 2: the dynamic response at impulsive wind.1. stationary nominal regime; 2. induced oscilation regime
(transient regime); a. ap displacement of tip blade, b. apwise bending moment at root blade, c. pitch angle variation, d.
edgewise bending moment at root blade.
An Aeroelastic Model for HAWT 263
Table 2. Comparison between experiment and numerical results.
Case 3.1 Case 3.2
Experiment Aeroelastic
code
Experiment Aeroelastic
code
U

(m/s) 12.5 12.5 8.7 8.7

t
1,st
(s) 4.70 14.0 2.0 21.0
t
1,end
(s) 6.00 15.3 2.5 21.5
t
2,st
(s) 34.58 24.0 32.0 34.0
t
2,end
(s) 35.7 25.12 32.7 34.7

1
(deg) -1.164 -1.164 -0.07 -0.07

2
(deg) -3.19 -3.19 -3.716 -3.716
Fig. 11 Comparison between experiment and aeroelastic code.
264 F. Frunzulica, Al. Dumitrache, H. Dumitrescu
4 Conclusions
A complete aeroelastic tool has been presented together with its self consistency tests and some
results. In this stage, we cannot conclude on its accuracy. However, the experience suggests that this
could be expected.
There are three points that must be underlined: (1) in some tests it appeared necessary to introduce
articial damping, (2) the coupling, within the context of approach described, must be non-linear and
(3) the computational effort required to couple the aerodynamics with the structural part, is small
compared to the whole.
Prospective work: we will made a most elaborate model based on the coupling of the aerodynamic
model with a structural code based on the complete structural model and composites materials.
Acknowledgement
Supports for this work by PCCA-PARTNERSHIP Program, with the support of ANCS, CNDI-
UEFISCDI, project no. PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.2-1670, are gratefully acknowledged.
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