Gravo-Aeroelastically-Scaled Demonstrator Field Tests to Represent Blade Response of a Flexible Extreme-Scale Downwind Turbine
Operational experimental testing results for a 44.5 m diameter wind turbine rotor were obtained to investigate moments and deflections of a downwind, coned wind turbine with lightweight flexible blades. These results were non-dimensionally compared against OpenFAST predictions of the manufactured sub-scale rotor as well as the full-scale concept rotor. The full-scale, 13-MW Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor is a 2-bladed downwind rotor with load aligned blades. The 1/5th sub-scale demonstrator rotor (SUMR-D) was designed to match the nondimensional gravo-aeroelastic flapwise loads, deflections, and dynamics of its full-scale counterpart. The sub-scale model was tested at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Flatirons Campus (NREL FC) with gusts that are 2.6 times higher than that of a scaled environment. To withstand the site conditions, the manufactured SUMR-D rotor employed higher inboard mass density and stiffness relative to that of an ideally-scaled model. The experimental results are compared against computational non-dimensional characteristics: tip-speed ratios, RPM, tip deflections, and flapwise bending moments. Despite the robust blades for NREL FC testing, the sub-scale experimental model was found to reasonably represent the dynamics predicted by OpenFAST. These results demonstrate the potential of low-cost high-fidelity sub-scale testing for novel extreme-scale turbine designs.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 2007864
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5000-87687; MainId:88462; UUID:7b9866ab-9e8b-4d21-b893-397d596ff16a; MainAdminID:70789
- Journal Information:
- Renewable Energy, Vol. 218
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English