Potential flow modelling for wind turbines
Lagrangian potential flow methods are a promising alternative to mainstream wind turbine aerodynamics tools such as blade element momentum methods and grid-based computation fluid dynamics approaches. Potential flow methods are relatively easy to setup and robust with respect to geometry. With th...
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| Language: | English en |
| Published: |
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3647 |
| Summary: | Lagrangian potential flow methods are a promising alternative to mainstream wind
turbine aerodynamics tools such as blade element momentum methods and grid-based
computation fluid dynamics approaches. Potential flow methods are relatively easy to
setup and robust with respect to geometry. With the advent of numerical techniques
such as the fast multipole method, potential flow methods can be made computationally
fast. Viscous core modelling has led to improvements in accuracy and numerical
robustness. A C++ programming library employing Prandtl-Weissinger lifting line
wing models and tailorable potential flow wake models has been developed under the
name LibAero. The library offers steady-state, periodic, and unsteady flow simulators
that can be used interchangeably with wake models. (Periodic and unsteady simulation
are still under development and validation.) Wake models are constructed from
potential flow elements such as vortex particles, laments, and sheets. Fast multipole
method, symmetry modelling, multigrid method, and relaxation iteration are utilized
to accelerate the computation of element-by-element interactions. The computational
performance is assessed and the numerical results are validated against wind tunnel
experimental data from the MEXICO Project and the Tj reborg wind turbine. The
results of steady-state simulations with respect to a variety of numerical options and
rotor blade designs are presented and conclusions are drawn. === Graduate |
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