Structural design and analysis of large wind turbine blade

Abstract

This paper presents a new design procedure for large wind turbine blades, which can be used in various case studies. The structural design of 2MW CFRP blade was performed using a verified 2MW GFRP blade model. The structural integrity assessment of the CFRP model demonstrated that the design criteria for tip deformation, buckling failure, and laminate failure in normal wind turbine operating conditions were met. The existing aero-elastic analysis code was not used to estimate the blade load, but the blade’s surface pressure was calculated using CFD. The conventional load analysis code necessitates the establishment of a turbine system and the input of structural characteristics with changes in the structural design specifications. However, when CFD was used to estimate the load, the turbine system was not required and the structure was evaluated against various design cases, making this a useful approach in preliminary design. This new structural design and evaluation procedure for wind blades can be used to review diverse design specifications in the initial design stage.