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Title: Assessment of Airfoil Property Sensitivity on Wind Turbine Extreme and Fatigue Loads: Preprint

Conference ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-0248· OSTI ID:1492999

Wind turbines are designed using a set of simulations to determine the structural loads that the turbine could experience. These structural loads can be significant influenced by physical turbine parameters. While significant research and effort has been put into measuring and defining such parameters, limited work has been done to quantify the sensitivity of structural loads to uncertainty in the physical turbine parameters. This paper therefore seeks to assess the sensitivity of different turbine aerodynamic parameters on the resulting ultimate and fatigue loads of the turbine during normal operational conditions. Eighteen different turbine parameters are screened using an Elementary Effects approach with radial points. The results show a high sensitivity of the loads to the blade twist and lift coefficient distributions. To a lesser extent, other turbine parameters that drive loads include the maximum lift coefficient location, blade chord length, and drag coefficient distributions.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1492999
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5000-72892
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech Forum, 7-11 January 2019, San Diego, California
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English