Response sensitivity of wind turbines to atmospheric turbulence

Technical Report · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6811583· OSTI ID:6811583

Thresher, R. W.; Holley, W. E.

The dynamic response of wind turbines to atmospheric turbulence is examined. The modeling handles both the wind inputs and the resulting loads using the analysis techniques of random vibration theory and spectral analysis. Presented are typical response results for a small, 8kW wind turbine and a large, 2.5 MW turbine. The turbine system mechanical model employs 5 degrees-of-freedom to represent the lower frequency motions of the system. The rotor is assumed to be rigid and is three bladed for simplicity. The aerodynamic forces are modeled using a simple quasi-static strip theory. The emphasis is placed on this model to identify the key turbulence inputs which are important in wind turbine design. On the basis of results computed for the two turbines modeled, it is determined that the most important turbulence inputs are the longitudinal fluctuations in the direction of the mean wind which act uniformly across the rotor disk (engulfs the rotor disk), and the across the disk gradients of the longitudinal wind fluctuations. Although each of these invokes a different machine response, they are judged to be of equal importance, because they each contribute significantly to the vibration energy of the lower system frequencies. The report presents numerous spectral density plots for the various turbine system responses, and discusses the results in some detail.

• Research Organization: Oregon State Univ., Corvallis (USA). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
• DOE Contract Number: AT06-79ET23144
• OSTI ID: 6811583
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/23144-81/1; ON: DE83000333
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
170602* -- Wind Energy Engineering-- Turbine Design & Operation
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
DYNAMIC LOADS
INFORMATION
MACHINERY
MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
POWER RANGE 1-10 KW
POWER RANGE 1-10 MW
SIMULATION
SPECTRA
THEORETICAL DATA
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
TURBULENCE
WIND
WIND TURBINES