Development of an Offshore Direct-Drive Wind Turbine Model by Using a Flexible Multibody Simulation (Poster)

Yi Guo, Jeroen van Dam, Roger Bergua, Jordi Jove, Jon Campbell

Research output: NRELPoster

Abstract

Modern wind turbines are complex, highly-coupled systems. The dynamic interaction between various components is especially pronounced for multi-megawatt wind turbines. As a result, design process is generally split in several phases. First step consists of creating a global aero-elastic model that includes essential dynamics of structural components using the minimum-possible number of degrees offreedom (d.o.f.). The most important simplifications concern drivetrain and rotor-nacelle assembly (RNA). This approach has been shown valid for several wind turbine configurations. Nevertheless, with increasing size of wind turbines, any simplified design approach must be validated. The present work deals with the comparison and validation of the two modeling approaches for directdrive offshorewind turbines. ARNA/drivetrain model idealized as collection of lumped masses and springs is compared to a detailed Finite Element Method (FEM) based model. The comparison between models focuses on dynamic loads concerning drivetrain system. The comparison is performed in several operational conditions in order to explore the range of validity of the simplified model. Finally, the paper proposesa numerical-based workflow to assess the validity of simplified models of RNA/drivetrain in an aero-elastic global WT model.
Original languageAmerican English
StatePublished - 2014

Publication series

NamePresented at the 2014 American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) WINDPOWER 2014 Conference, 5 - 8 May 2014, Las Vegas, Nevada

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/PO-5000-61705

Keywords

  • direct-drive wind turbine
  • finite element method
  • modeling
  • NREL
  • rotor nacelle assembly

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