Experimental study of particle dampers applied to wind turbine blades to reduce low-frequency sound emission

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (6) ◽  
pp. 71-82
Author(s):  
Braj Bhushan Prasad ◽  
Fabian Duvigneau ◽  
Daniel Juhre ◽  
Elmar Woschke
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Granular Material ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Sound Emission ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades

Sound emission from an onshore wind turbine is one of the significant hurdles to use wind energy to its full potential. The vibration caused by the generator is transmitted to the blades, which radiates the sound to the surrounding. The purpose of this experimental study is to present a passive vibration reduction concept, which is based on the high damping properties of granular materials. The efficiency of this concept will be investigated using a laser scanning vibrometer device. For the experimental purpose in the laboratory, small-scale replicas inspired by the original configurations are used as reference geometries for the wind turbine generator and the blades. Vibrations of the prototype, with and without granular material filling, will be determined and compared with each other. The influence of the amount of granular material inside the structure is also investigated. Apart from this, different types of granular filling are examined with respect to their efficiency in reducing the amplitude of vibration of the structure while being as light as possible in order to design a lightweight solution, which increases the overall mass of the wind turbine marginally.

scholarly journals Novel Application and Validation of a Method to Assess Visual Impacts of Rotating Wind Turbine Blades Within Woodland Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
U. Nopp-Mayr ◽  
F. Kunz ◽  
F. Suppan ◽  
E. Schöll ◽  
J. Coppes
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Forest Canopy ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
Independent Field

AbstractIncreasing numbers of wind power plants (WPP) are constructed across the globe to reduce the anthropogenic contribution to global warming. There are, however, concerns on the effects of WPP on human health as well as related effects on wildlife. To address potential effects of WPP in environmental impact assessments, existing models accounting for shadow flickering and noise are widely applied. However, a standardized, yet simple and widely applicable proxy for the visibility of rotating wind turbines in woodland areas was largely lacking up to date. We combined land cover information of forest canopy extracted from orthophotos and airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data to represent the visibility of rotating wind turbines in five woodland study sites with a high spatial resolution. Performing an in-situ validation in five study areas across Europe which resulted in a unique sample of 1738 independent field observations, we show that our approach adequately predicts from where rotating wind turbine blades are visible within woodlands or not. We thus provide strong evidence, that our approach yields a valuable proxy of the visibility of moving rotor blades with high resolution which in turn can be applied in environmental impact assessments of WPP within woodlands worldwide.

scholarly journals Simulation of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Nanocomposites for Small Wind Turbine Blades

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 622
Author(s):  
Yasser Elhenawy ◽  
Yasser Fouad ◽  
Haykel Marouani ◽  
Mohamed Bassyouni
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Glass Fiber ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Element Analysis ◽  
Glass Fiber Reinforced ◽  
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines ◽  
Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes

This study aims to evaluate the effect of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the performance of glass fiber (GF)-reinforced polypropylene (PP) for wind turbine blades. Support for theoretical blade movement of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), simulation, and analysis were performed with the Ansys computer package to gain insight into the durability of polypropylene-chopped E-glass for application in turbine blades under aerodynamic, gravitational, and centrifugal loads. Typically, polymer nanocomposites are used for small-scale wind turbine systems, such as for residential applications. Mechanical and physical properties of material composites including tensile and melt flow indices were determined. Surface morphology of polypropylene-chopped E-glass fiber and functionalized MWCNTs nanocomposites showed good distribution of dispersed phase. The effect of fiber loading on the mechanical properties of the PP nanocomposites was investigated in order to obtain the optimum composite composition and processing conditions for manufacturing wind turbine blades. The results show that adding MWCNTs to glass fiber-reinforced PP composites has a substantial influence on deflection reduction and adding them to chopped-polypropylene E-glass has a significant effect on reducing the bias estimated by finite element analysis.

Investigation of performance of small wind turbine blades with winglets

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Kulak ◽  
Michal Lipian ◽  
Karol Zawadzki
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Significant Degree ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Performance Study ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Efficiency Increase ◽  
Energy Prosumers

Purpose This paper aims to discuss the results of the performance study of wind turbine blades equipped with winglets. An investigation focusses on small wind turbines (SWTs), where the winglets are recalled as one of the most promising concepts in terms of turbine efficiency increase. Design/methodology/approach To investigate a contribution of winglets to SWT aerodynamic efficiency, a wind tunnel experiment was performed at Lodz University of Technology. In parallel, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations campaign was conducted with the ANSYS CFX software to investigate appearing flow structures in greater detail. Findings The research indicates the potential behind the application of winglets in low Reynolds flow conditions, while the CFD study enables the identification of crucial regions influencing the flow structure in the most significant degree. Research limitations/implications As the global effect on a whole rotor is a result of a small-scale geometrical feature, it is important to localise unveiled phenomena and the mechanisms behind their generation. Practical implications Even the slightest efficiency improvement in a distributed generation installation can promote such a solution amongst energy prosumers and increase their independence from limited natural resources. Originality/value The winglet-equipped blades of SWTs provide an opportunity to increase the device performance with relatively low cost and ease of implementation.

Crack detection technique for operating wind turbine blades using Vibro-Acoustic Modulation

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 660-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungmin Kim ◽  
Douglas E Adams ◽  
Hoon Sohn ◽  
Gustavo Rodriguez-Rivera ◽  
Noah Myrent ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Crack Detection ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Detection Technique ◽  
New Technique ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Excitation Signal ◽  
Acoustic Modulation

This article presents a new technique for identifying cracks in wind turbine blades undergoing operational loads using the Vibro-Acoustic Modulation technique. Vibro-Acoustic Modulation utilizes a low-frequency pumping excitation signal in conjunction with a high-frequency probing excitation signal to create the modulation that is used to identify cracks. Wind turbines provide the ideal conditions in which Vibro-Acoustic Modulation can be utilized because wind turbines experience large low-frequency structural vibrations during operation which can serve as the low-frequency pumping excitation signal. In this article, the theory for the vibro-acoustic technique is described, and the proposed crack detection technique is demonstrated with Vibro-Acoustic Modulation experiments performed on a small Whisper 100 wind turbine in operation. The experimental results are also compared with two other conventional vibro-acoustic techniques in order to validate the new technique. Finally, a computational study is demonstrated for choosing a proper probing signal with a finite element model of the cracked blade to maximize the sensitivity of the technique for detecting cracks.

Design of Experimental Procedure and Analysis Methods of Small Scale Wind Turbine Blades With Different Geometries

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman Alsultan ◽  
Andrew Ryan Block ◽  
Trevor James Burg ◽  
Joshua Neal Vriesman ◽  
R. S. Amano
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Experimental Procedure ◽  
Torque Generation ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
To Come

The renewable energy is a promising field, which shows a lot of potential for future energy solutions. The design of the blade shows a lot effects on the efficiency of the wind turbine, and the design parameters governs the performance characteristics. This paper addresses a number of innovative blade designs that was developed by alterations made to the existing conventional straight blade. These blades were extensively studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, and showed promising results, which was the motive behind this study. We are designing an experiment to study small scale wind turbines, which will enable us to gather data that will explain some differences in power and torque output. These steps will help us to come to a better understanding of some aerodynamic aspects that will impact the performance of each individual blade design. The comparing criteria for this study was the torque generation at the axes of rotation, which can be translated to several parameters, such as energy output, using some theoretical basis equations.

Condition monitoring of wind turbine blades and tower via an automated laser scanning system

2019 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmet U. Dilek ◽  
Ali D. Oguz ◽  
Furkan Satis ◽  
Yigit D. Gokdel ◽  
Muammer Ozbek
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Condition Monitoring ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Scanning System ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Laser Scanning System

scholarly journals Detection of Delamination in Laminate Wind Turbine Blades Using One-Dimensional Wavelet Analysis of Modal Responses

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Łukasz Doliński ◽  
Marek Krawczuk ◽  
Arkadiusz Żak
Keyword(s):  
Wavelet Transform ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Continuous Wavelet Transform ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Diagnostic Technique ◽  
Experimental Investigations ◽  
Continuous Wavelet ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
One Dimensional

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of a nondestructive diagnostic technique used to determine the location and size of delamination in laminated coatings of wind turbine blades. This is realized based on results of numerical and experimental investigations obtained by the use of the finite element method (FEM) and laser scanning vibrometry (LSV). The proposed method is based on the one-dimensional continuous wavelet transform of vibration parameters of a wind turbine blade. The investigations were conducted for a 1 : 10 scaled-down blade of a 36 m rotor wind turbine. Glass fibres and epoxy resin were used as laminate components. For numerical studies, a simple delamination model was proposed. The results obtained by the authors were used to determine the optimal set of parameters of the continuous wavelet transform. The application of high-quality LSV for experimental measurements allowed determining the optimal conditions of measuring procedures. At the same time the capabilities and limitations, resulting from the nature of the measurement method, were identified. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the detection method, preliminary signal processing was performed. Beside base wavelets also different waveform families were tested. The results obtained by the authors showed that it is possible to identify and localize even relatively small damage.

Relating Turbulence to Wind Turbine Blade Loads: Parametric Study with Multiple Regression Analysis

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 156-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Kashef ◽  
S. R. Winterstein
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Parametric Study ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Frequency Content ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Blade Loads

Different wind parameters are studied to find a set that is most useful in estimating fatigue loads on wind turbine blades. The histograms of rainflow counted stress ranges are summarized through their first three statistical moments and regression analysis is used to estimate these moments in various wind conditions. A systematic method of comparing the ability of different wind parameters to estimate the moments is described and results are shown for flapwise loads on three HAWTs. In the case of two of these turbines, the stress ranges are shown to be highly correlated with a turbulence measure obtained by removing a portion of the low-frequency content of the wind.

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