Vision
High fidelity numerical FSI-simulation is needed to address the industry needs for increased competence related to the core of wind energy, i.e. the conversion of kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy that is used to produce electricity.
Main objective
Develop robust and efficient numerical simulation tools for coupled FSI simulation of full scale wind turbines to improve the design and increase the knowlegde of wake vortex effects.
Partial objectives:
a) Develop next generation simulation tools for FSI analysis
b) Improve integration of design and analysis
c) Improve prediction of wind energy production
d) Promote the use of modern CFD tools in the Norwegian wind industry
e) Efficient estimation of turbulent atmospheric inflow conditions
f) Verification and improvement of simplified empirical and parametrized models
Project summary
The deep sea offshore wind potential is huge, but will only be realised provided that costs are reduced to a competitive level. This project addresses exactly this, presenting results on technical issues related to the core of wind energy i.e. the conversion of kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy that is used to produce electricity. By enabling more understanding of the physics behind the wind turbine interaction through detailed fluid-strucutre interction simulation we may increase the competence in developing more optimized wind turbines as well as more yielding wind farm layouts.
Numerical simulation tools are an invaluable way of gaining new insights into these issues with the possibility of integrating many physical models influencing the performance of the wind turbine. Up to now the integrated numerical simulation tools used by the wind energy industry apply simplified empirical or parametrized models to compute the aerodynamical forces on the turbine blades. Simplified numerical models are computationally efficient, but important details of the flow field and nonlinearities in the interaction of the air flow and rotor blades are not resolved.
Coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations are needed for accurate modelling of wind turbines, and also to provide input parameters, to verify and to improve parametrized models. Detailed FSI analysis will be even more important in the design of offshore wind turbines because of the extreme wind conditions at sea.
New methods for accurate, robust and efficient simulation of FSI for wind turbines will be developed in the project. The methods will be implemented to form a state-of-the-art numerical simulation tool for coupled FSI simulations of a full scale rotor utilizing the computational power of modern parallel hardware architectures. Furthermore, the atmospheric interaction is important and will be taken into consideration by establishing representative input profiles.
