Novel structural modeling and mesh moving techniques for advanced fluid-structure interaction simulation of wind turbines

Abstract

In this paper, we target more advanced fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations of wind turbines than reported previously. For this, we illustrate how the recent advances in isogeometric analysis of thin structures may be used for efficient structural mechanics modeling of full wind turbine structures, including tower, nacelle, and blades. We consider both horizontal axis and vertical axis wind turbine designs. We enhance the sliding-interface formulation of aerodynamics, previously developed to handle flows about mechanical components in relative motion such as rotor-tower interaction to allow nonstationary sliding interfaces. To accommodate the nonstationary sliding interfaces, we propose a new mesh moving technique and present its mathematical formulation. The numerical examples include structural mechanics verification for the new offshore wind turbine blade design, FSI simulation of a horizontal axis wind turbine undergoing yawing motion as it turns into the wind and FSI simulation of a vertical axis wind turbine. The FSI simulations are performed at full scale and using realistic wind conditions and rotor speeds. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.