High-fidelity CFD Simulations of Two Wind Turbines in Arrays using Nonlinear Frequency Domain Solution Method

Author(s):  
Shine Win Naung ◽  
Mahdi Erfanian Nakhchi ◽  
Mohammad Rahmati
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shine Win Naung ◽  
Mohammad Rahmati ◽  
Hamed Farokhi

Abstract The high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a complete wind turbine model usually require significant computational resources. It will require much more resources if the fluid-structure interactions between the blade and the flow are considered, and it has been the major challenge in the industry. The aeromechanical analysis of a complete wind turbine model using a high-fidelity CFD method is discussed in this paper. The distinctiveness of this paper is the application of the nonlinear frequency domain solution method to analyse the forced response and flutter instability of the blade as well as to investigate the unsteady flow field across the wind turbine rotor and the tower. This method also enables the aeromechanical simulations of wind turbines for various inter blade phase angles in a combination with a phase shift solution method. Extensive validations of the nonlinear frequency domain solution method against the conventional time domain solution method reveal that the proposed frequency domain solution method can reduce the computational cost by one to two orders of magnitude.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shine Win Naung ◽  
Mohammad Rahmati ◽  
Hamed Farokhi

Abstract The high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of a complete wind turbine model usually require significant computational resources. It will require much more resources if the fluid–structure interactions (FSIs) between the blade and the flow are considered, and it has been the major challenge in the industry. The aeromechanical analysis of a complete wind turbine model using a high-fidelity CFD method is discussed in this paper. The distinctiveness of this paper is the application of the nonlinear frequency domain solution method to analyze the forced response and flutter instability of the blade as well as to investigate the unsteady flow field across the wind turbine rotor and the tower. This method also enables the aeromechanical simulations of wind turbines for various interblade phase angles in a combination with a phase shift solution method. Extensive validations of the nonlinear frequency domain solution method against the conventional time domain solution method reveal that the proposed frequency domain solution method can reduce the computational cost by one to two orders of magnitude.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yassine Ouakki ◽  
Abdelaziz Arbaoui

Abstract. The accurate prediction of loadings and velocities on a wind turbine blades is essential for the design and optimization of wind turbines rotors. However, the classical BEM still suffer from an inaccurate prediction of induced velocities and loadings, even if the classical correction like stall delay effect and tip loss correction are used. For low solidity rotors, the loadings are generally over-predicted in the tip region, since the far wake expansion is not accurately accounted for in the one-dimensional (1D) momentum theory. The 1D dimensional momentum theory supposes that the far wake axial induction is equal to twice the axial induction in the rotor plane, which results in an under-estimation of the axial induction factor in the tip region. Considering the complex nature of the flow around a rotating blade, the accurate estimation of 3D effects is still challenging, since most stall delay models still often tend to under-predict or over-predict the loadings near the root region. As for the solution method for the classical BEM equation, the induced velocities are computed accounting for the drag force. However, according to the Kutta-Joukowski theorem, the induced velocities on a blade element are only created by lift force. Accounting for drag force when solving the BEM will result in an over-estimation of the axial induction factor, while the tangential induction factor is under-estimated. To improve the accuracy of the BEM method, in this paper, the 1D momentum theory is corrected using a new far wake expansion model to take into account the radial flow effect. The blade element theory is corrected for three-dimensional effects through an improved stall delay model. An improved solution method for the BEM equations respecting the Kutta-Joukowski theorem is proposed. The improved BEM model is used to estimate the aerodynamic loads and velocities on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Phase VI rotor blades. The results of this study show that the proposed BEM model gives an accurate prediction of the loads and velocities compared to the classical BEM model.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (398) ◽  
pp. 15-23
Author(s):  
Zhang Qingshan ◽  
◽  
Chen Weimin ◽  
Du Yunlong ◽  
Dong Guoxiang ◽  
...  

A comparison between towing tank testing and full-scale CFD simulations is presented at three different target speeds. For the current self-propulsion simulation, the self-propulsion point was obtained using polynomial interpolation. The studies of boundary layer thickness, a basic grid uncertainty assessment and verification were performed to give some confidence of grid application to current self-propulsion simulation. All simulations are performed using a commercial CFD software STAR-CCM+. It is concluded that with high-fidelity numerical methods, it’s possible to treat hull roughness and directly calculate full-scale flow characteristics, including the effects of the free surface, none-linearity, turbulence and the interaction between propeller, hull and the flow field.


Author(s):  
Laura Junge ◽  
Graham Ashcroft ◽  
Peter Jeschke ◽  
Christian Frey

Due to the relative motion between adjacent blade rows the aerodynamic flow fields within turbomachinery are normally dominated by deterministic, periodic phenomena. In the numerical simulation of such unsteady flows (nonlinear) frequency-domain methods are therefore attractive as they are capable of fully exploiting the given spatial and temporal periodicity, as well as capturing or modelling flow nonlinearity. Central to the efficiency and accuracy of such frequency-domain methods is the selection of the frequencies and the circumferential modes to be resolved in simulations. Whilst trivial in the context of the simulation of a single compressor- or turbine-stage, the choice of solution modes becomes substantially more involved in multi-stage configurations. In this work the importance of mode scattering, in the context of the unsteady aerodynamic field, is investigated and quantified. It is shown that scattered modes can substantially impact the unsteady flow field and are essential for the accurate modelling of wake propagation within multistage configurations. Furthermore, an iterative approach is outlined, based on the spectral analysis of the circumferential modes at the interfaces between blade rows, to identify the dominant solution modes that should be resolved in the adjacent blade row. To demonstrate the importance of mode scattering and validate the approach for their identification the unsteady blade row interaction within a 4.5 stage axial compressor is computed using both the harmonic balance method and, based on a full annulus midspan simulation, a time-domain method. Through the inclusion of scattered modes it is shown that the solution quality of the harmonic balance results is comparable to that of the nonlinear time-domain simulation.


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