Wind turbine aeroelasticity
We provide some unique consultancy services, as described below.
AEROELASTIC DESIGN EVALUATION
Service
Aeroelastic analysis of your wind turbine.
Over the years we have performed many different aeroelastic analysis of wind turbines for manufacturers all over the world.
Your complete turbine design will be investigated to assess the stability. An aeroelastic expert will perform very different simulations using the same tools as you use to do load calculations. However, for a stability analysis one only looks at possible damping and resonance issues. This is done by performing a wide set of simulations and looking in detail at the resulting time series. This is where the years of experience are of vital importance. People without experience can learn to do the simulations in a few months, but interpreting the results can require years of experience. The result will be an overall evaluation of the different modes on the turbine and if any of those modes have negative damping or perhaps low damping values that, for an optimal turbine, should be increased. How these can be increased will be one of the final suggestions provided to you, once the complete analysis has been performed. The behaviour of the aerofoils that have been selected as well as the operating conditions will also be addressed from an aeroelastic point of view.
The entire process will be described in detail in the report, such that you can perhaps perform the simulations yourself in future. In case of severe vibrations, the cause of these vibrations is investigated intensively and usually the cause can be explained, allowing effective design changes to alter the situation and understanding of the phenomenon to prevent it in future designs.
If you are interested in getting one of your turbine designs evaluated from an aeroelastic point of view by a world-leading expert, please feel free to contact us and discuss your wishes and what we can offer. You can send us an e-mail: info at jeho dot nl, or contact us through twitter: @JEHO_BV or through LinkedIn. We look forward to hearing from you!
SOFTWARE EVALUATION
Service
Software evaluation.
The software you use can have significant influence on the results you get when analysing the loads on a wind turbine design. Is it possible the tool is wrong or do you have a real issue in the design?
Every load you calculate, the power output you predict, it all is calculated using tools that will have simplifications of the real world. It is always of vital importance to know what the validity of your code is, do you cross the boundaries of its validity using your latest design?
We can help you evaluate the software that you use and explain what possible short comings there are and perhaps provide you with suggestions on how to improve the chain of software you use. Using over 20 years of experience in the field of aeroelastic calculations using all kind of different tools for ever increasing wind turbine designs, we are very well aware of possible issues that arise from simplifications in different codes, from the approximations that are used and if this is relevant for your latest design or not.
To give an example, there are many codes that use only the linearised modes of the blades in the load calculations. This does not have to be a problem, but it can be a serious inaccuracy if the linearisation is performed about the undeformed state and your blade is large and rather flexible.
So if you have any doubts about your results, or you see something weird in the results and are hoping it is not realistic, but not sure, we can help you and check if it is to be expected that the code you use does not perform well in your specific case or if the results are likely to be correct and perhaps the design needs changes. In that case we can advise you which property to change.
Please feel free to contact us, if you are interested in more details concerning this service: info at jeho . nl or through twitter: @JEHO_BV.
Service
We also have significant experience in performing the load set calculations for certification and site specific load set calculations, so if you can use an extra hand with these calculations, please contact us for more information.