Structural Analysis of Large-Scale Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines, Part I: Wind Load Simulation

Jinghua Lin, You-Lin Xu, Yong Xia and Chao Li
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Jinghua Lin: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
You-Lin Xu: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Yong Xia: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Chao Li: Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-31

Abstract: When compared with horizontal-axis wind turbines, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have the primary advantages of insensitivity to wind direction and turbulent wind, simple structural configuration, less fatigue loading, and easy maintenance. In recent years, large-scale VAWTs have attracted considerable attention. Wind loads on a VAWT must be determined prior to structural analyses. However, traditional blade element momentum theory cannot consider the effects of turbulence and other structural components. Moreover, a large VAWT cannot simply be regarded as a planar structure, and 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is computationally prohibitive. In this regard, a practical wind load simulation method for VAWTs based on the strip analysis method and 2D shear stress transport (SST) k-ω model is proposed. A comparison shows that the wind pressure and aerodynamic forces simulated by the 2D SST k-ω model match well with those obtained by 2.5D large eddy simulation (LES). The influences of mean wind speed profile, turbulence, and interaction of all structural components are considered. A large straight-bladed VAWT is taken as a case study. Wind loads obtained in this study will be applied to the fatigue and ultimate strength analyses of the VAWT in the companion paper.

Keywords: vertical-axis wind turbines; wind load simulation; strip analysis; CFD simulation; turbulent wind (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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