A Presentation on the

Detailed Design of a Morphable Wind Turbine Blade

on

04-06-2014

by

Shitij Arora

Master-1, SMA (Applied Mechanics), Ecole Centrale de Nantes

Motivation
Increase the efficiency of a Wind
Turbine by:
1) Improving Aerodynamic
efficiency
2) Reducing structural weight
3) Aligning rotor in the direction
of wind

*courtesy: Wind Energy Essentials

Blade

Morphability

Design Procedure
Step 1
Choosing Power for the turbine and Estimating the size of Rotor
For achieving Betz Limit (CP=0.59), efficiency 80% and Wind velocity 11 m/s

Variation of Rotor size with Power Rating

25
20
15
10
5
0
10

7
6
5
4
3
Power Rating in 10-1 Megawatts

Radius of Rotor in metres

30
P (in MW)Power
Cp
0.1 100000
0.2 200000
0.3 300000
0.4 400000
0.5 500000
0.6 600000
0.7 700000
0.8 800000
0.9 900000
1 1000000

eff
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59
0.59

0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8
0.8

density pi
R
U
1.225 3.141593 9.095194
1.225 3.141593 12.86255
1.225 3.141593 15.75334
1.225 3.141593 18.19039
1.225 3.141593 20.33747
1.225 3.141593 22.27859
1.225 3.141593 24.06362
1.225 3.141593 25.72509
1.225 3.141593 27.28558
1.225 3.141593 28.76153

I choose this

Power= 0.1 MW
Radius= 9.0952 m

11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11

Design Procedure
Step 2
Choosing a tip Speed ratio (l) for the blade (the ratio between the angular
velocity of wind to the wind velocity) = 6
No of Blades chosen = 3
Airfoil profile: Symmetric profile (no camber) = NACA0018 near hub,
NACA0015 in middle of blade span and NACA0012 near the tip
Taking design value of angle of attack afor which CL/CD ratio is maximum, take
corresponding value of CL from standard tested values for NACA profile

Cldesign 0.65
Alpha
7

Design Procedure
Step 3
Calculate relative wind angle distribution and chord length distribution along its span
(radius r on total radius R), for maximizing efficiency, is calculated using formula:

= (2 3)1 (1 )
Blade Twist is given by:

=
Chord length is given by:

8
(1 )

Vary with span

Design Procedure
Use the formulas in previous slide to get this!
lambda
Radius
Blades
Cldesign
alpha
%thickness chord
rotor area
solidity ratio

6
9095.19
3
0.65
7
15%
259880595
0.410

section-1
section-2
section-3
section-4
section-5
section-6
section-7
section-8
section-9
section-10
section-11
section-12
section-13
section-14
section-15
section-16
section-17

interval r,i
Lambda r,i phi
0.0001 0.909519
0.0006
0.05 454.7597
0.3
0.1 909.5194
0.6
0.15 1364.279
0.9
0.2 1819.039
1.2
0.25 2273.799
1.5
0.3 2728.558
1.8
0.35 3183.318
2.1
0.4 3638.078
2.4
0.45 4092.838
2.7
0.5 4547.597
3
0.55 5002.357
3.3
0.6 5457.117
3.6
0.7 6366.636
4.2
0.8 7276.156
4.8
0.9 8185.675
5.4
1 9095.194
6

chord
59.977
48.867
39.357
32.009
26.537
22.460
19.370
16.976
15.080
13.549
12.290
11.239
10.349
8.928
7.846
6.994
6.308

5.857
2005.665
2658.595
2673.252
2470.015
2222.976
1990.538
1787.636
1614.697
1468.009
1343.221
1236.408
1144.308
994.264
877.804
785.120
709.768

twist

thickness chord solidity ratio

52.977
0.879
0.0001
41.867
300.850
0.05
32.357
398.789
0.1
25.009
400.988
0.15
19.537
370.502
0.2
15.460
333.446
0.25
12.370
298.581
0.3
9.976
268.145
0.35
8.080
242.205
0.4
6.549
220.201
0.45
5.290
201.483
0.5
4.239
185.461
0.55
3.349
171.646
0.6
1.928
149.140
0.7
0.846
131.671
0.8
-0.006
117.768
0.9
-0.692
106.465
1

Design Procedure
Step 4
1. Use the chord values at each section
2. Making the blade section profile using the following formula for NACA-4 digit
airfoil [2]:

FINALLY!!
1. Use the discretized data for each
section to form the blade sections
in AUTOCAD
2. IMPORT the sections in CATIA,
and join the sections using
Multisections volume
[2] http://www.wikipedia.com/NACA_airfoil

Why morphability?
What we get??
Best aerodynamic profile possible for a static wind velocity and direction

But what if the wind velocity or direction changes?

Morphability? Okay! but how?

Choose a morphable material for the blade (infinite DOFs in twist)
Choose a mechanism that changes the blade geometry (limited DOF)

Blade Material detailed Requirements:

The blade must be able to twist
It should be strong enough against the wind load

ANTAGONISTIC functional Requirements?

Use COMPOSITES!

Blade Skin Material

Blade skin section

Elastomer
Steel reinforcement

1. I choose blade skin made of high modulus elastomer (silica rubber)

reinforced with steel wires (like or unlike tyres)
2. The steel wires give unidirectional strength in the sectional direction of the
blade
3. Elastomer gives ability to take up high degree of twist

Blade Morphing Mechanism

9 proposals for the mechanisms that can be used for morphing the blade
I choose the simplest of all: the TELESCOPIC Mechanism, with 3 concentric
shafts (3 DOFs) for transfering twist into the blade
Each shaft is rotated by a different motor at one end to a precise angular
requirement
Shaft-3
Shaft-2
Shaft-1

The twist at any section of the

blade skin, between two movers
can be found using this relation

Blade parts
Mechanism: 1 stator (AA2014-T651), 3 movers (AA2014-T651), 3 concentric
shafts (Ti-6Al-4V), 12 bearings (AISI 52100), 2 circlips (M250 Maraging steel)
Stator
Mover-1

Stator
Mover-3

Mover-2

Blade parts

Double row taper Roller

Bearing [3]

Shaft-2: OD 72 mm, ID 50 mm
9085.7 mm

Shaft-3: Dia 40 mm, ID 50 mm

Circlip [3]
Pretwist in the blade

[3] http://www.tracepartsonline.net

7066.64mm

Blade: morphable skin

4238.08mm

Blade skin with pretwist

Shaft-1: OD 120 mm,

ID 88 mm

Fabrication of Parts
Fabrication
Part Name

Process

Stator, Movers (1,2,3)

Casting, milling (for splines)

Shafts

Tube Extrusion, turning, milling (for splines), welding for head

Circlip

Milling

Extrusion, Casting and

Milling

Mechanism Assembly

Mover-1

Stator

Shaft-3
Mover-2
Shaft-2
Shaft-1

Mover-3

Complete Blade with the skin

Simulation of the Mechanism

FE Structural Analysis
Platform: Ansys 12.0

63270 SHELL181 Elements, 189810 DOFs

Linear Structural analysis

Material property:
Orthotropic material property for the skin
E11= 31GPa
E22= E33= 100MPa,
n12=0.31, n23=n13=0.4995
Aluminum Material: E= 70GPa, n=0.33

100% mapped meshing

Loads on the Blade

Load on the blade: Dynamic pressure= + where = /

The coefficient of pressure
CP for NACA0012 airfoil can
go maximum 5 times. So, I
applied a pressure load
factor of 10 on the
evaluated pressure

Dirichlet BC

Results: Deformations and Stresses

Vonmises stress

Vector sum Displacements

Thank You!