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Wind turbine design codes: A comparison of the structural response

Conference ·
OSTI ID:753784

The National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is continuing a comparison of several computer codes used in the design and analysis of wind turbines. The second part of this comparison determined how well the programs predict the structural response of wind turbines. In this paper, the authors compare the structural response for four programs: ADAMS, BLADED, FAST{_}AD, and YawDyn. ADAMS is a commercial, multibody-dynamics code from Mechanical Dynamics, Inc. BLADED is a commercial, performance and structural-response code from Garrad Hassan and Partners Limited. FAST{_}AD is a structural-response code developed by Oregon State University and the University of Utah for the NWTC. YawDyn is a structural-response code developed by the University of Utah for the NWTC. ADAMS, FAST{_}AD, and YawDyn use the University of Utah's AeroDyn subroutine package for calculating aerodynamic forces. Although errors were found in all the codes during this study, once they were fixed, the codes agreed surprisingly well for most of the cases and configurations that were evaluated. One unresolved discrepancy between BLADED and the AeroDyn-based codes was when there was blade and/or teeter motion in addition to a large yaw error.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Department of Energy (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-99GO10337
OSTI ID:
753784
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-500-27470
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English