A software tool for optimising structural and material configurations of wind turbine adaptive blades

Abstract

In a decoupled design method for bend-twist adaptive blades the optimum induced twist at a reference operating condition is obtained in the aerodynamic design phase. In the structural design phase, the structural and material configuration need to be found such that the elastic coupling in the blade produces the desired induced twist obtained in the aerodynamic design phase. For this purpose, a software tool is required by which designer can easily define various elastic coupling configurations and then analyse the adaptive blade response in terms of the produced induced twist at given reference point. This paper presents a software tool for this purpose. In this software tool, the suction and pressure sides of the blade as well as its webs are assumed to be constructed by a number of trapezoid material patches. Each patch can have its own material characteristics and layup configuration. A complete decoupled design will become efficient by combining this software tool with a developed analytical beam model and as well as an aerodynamic performance evaluation code.