Aeromechanical evaluation of large HAWT’s blades

Abstract

This paper presents aeromechanical evaluation of a blade (length, 50 m) of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT). Aerodynamic module combines three-dimensional non-linear lifting surface theory approach and a two-dimensional panel method for steady axisymmetric flow. It provides effective incident velocity and angle of attack at each blade section and 3D pressure distribution on blade as an input data for finite element analysis (FEA) package. FEA provides deformations, strains and stress distributions along blade and material induced fatigue. Degradation linear accumulation model was used in fatigue study under one million cycles of loading. Calculated accumulated damage was found below critical value.