Multidisciplinary Design of Wind Turbine Blades

Short Course on Wind Energy
- Multidisciplinary Design of
Wind Turbine Blades -
POLItecnico
di MIlano
Carlo L. Bottasso
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
November 2011
Wind Turbine Design
Presentation Outline
POLITECNICO di MILANO
POLI-Wind Research Lab
Holistic Design of Wind Turbines

- Annual Energy Production (AEP)
- Noise
-
Wind Turbine Design
- Generator (RPM, weight,

torque, drive-train, )
- Pitch and yaw actuators
- Brakes
-
GE wind turbine (from inhabitat.com)
Pitch-torque control laws:

- Regulating the machine at
different set points depending
on wind conditions
- Reacting to gusts
- Reacting to wind turbulence
- Keeping actuator duty-cycles
within admissible limits
- Handling transients: run-up,
normal and emergency shutdown procedures
-
POLI-Wind
- Loads: envelope
computed from large
number of Design Load
Cases (DLCs, IEC-61400)
- Fatigue (25 year life),
Damage Equivalent
Loads (DELs)
- Maximum blade tip
deflections
- Placement of natural
frequencies wrt rev
harmonics
- Stability: flutter, LCOs,
low damping of certain
modes, local buckling
- Complex couplings
among rotor/drivetrain/tower/foundations
(off-shore: hydro loads,
floating & moored
platforms)
- Weight: massive size,
composite materials (but
shear quantity is an
issue, fiberglass, wood,
clever use of carbon
fiber)
Research
Lab
- Manufacturing
technology, constraints

Current approach to design: discipline-oriented specialist groups
Wind Turbine Design
Lengthy loops to satisfy all

requirements/constraints
(months)
Different simulation models
Data transfer/compatibility
among groups
There is a need for multi-disciplinary optimization tools, which must:
Be fast (hours/days) (on standard desktop hardware!)

Provide workable solutions in all areas (aerodynamics, structures, controls) for
specialists to refine/verify
Account ab-initio for all complex couplings (no fixes a posteriori)
Use fully-integrated tools (no manual intervention)
They will never replace the experienced designer! but would greatly
speed-up design, improve exploration/knowledge of design space

Focus of present work: integrated multi-disciplinary (holistic)
constrained design of wind turbines, i.e. optimal coupled sizing of:
Aerodynamic shape
Structural members (loads, aero-servo-elasticity and controls)
Wind Turbine Design
Constraints: ensure a viable design by enforcing all necessary design

requirements
Applications:
Sizing of a new machine

Improvement of a tentative configuration
Trade-off studies (e.g. performance-cost)
Modifications to exiting models
Previous work:
Duineveld, Wind Turbine Blade Workshop 2008; Fuglsang & Madsen, JWEIA
1999; Fuglsang, EWEC 2008; etc.
Optimization-Based Multi-Level
Blade Design
Cost:
AEP
Aerodynamic parameters:
chord, twist, airfoils
Wind Turbine Design
Cost:
AEP/weigh (or cost
model if available)
Macro parameters:
rotor radius, max
chord, tapering,
Cost:
Blade weight (or cost
model if available)
Structural parameters:
thickness of shell and
spar caps, width and
location of shear webs
Controls:
model-based (selfadjusting to changing
design)
Preliminary
design
Fully automated
links
Wind Turbine Design
Design
refinement
min cost s.t. constraints

When SQP
converged
- Definition of geometrically
exact beam model
- Span-wise interpolation
Constraints:
- Maximum tip deflection
- 2D FEM ANBA analysis of
maximum stresses/strains
- 2D FEM ANBA fatigue analysis
- Definition of complete HAWT

Cp-Lambda multibody model
- DLCs simulation
- Campbell diagram
- Compute cost (mass)
Automatic 3D CAD model

generation by lofting of sectional
geometry
Automatic 3D FEM meshing

(shells and/or solid elements)
Update of blade mass (cost)
DLC post-processing:
load envelope, DELs, Markov,
max tip deflection
Analyses:
- Max tip deflection
- Max stress/strain
- Fatigue
- Buckling
Verification of design constraints
Constraint/model update heuristic (to repair constraint violations)
Coarse level: 2D FEM section & beam models
SQP optimizer
- ANBA 2D FEM sectional analysis

- Computation of 6x6 stiffness
matrices
Fine level: 3D FEM
Wind Turbine Design
Definition of sectional design

parameters
Wind Turbine Design
Cp-Lambda highlights:
Wind Turbine Design
Geometrically exact
composite-ready beam models
Generic topology (Cartesian
coordinates+Lagrange
multipliers)
Dynamic wake model (PetersHe, yawed flow conditions)
Efficient large-scale DAE
solver
Non-linearly stable time
integrator
Fully IEC 61400 compliant
(DLCs, wind models)
Rigid body
Geometrically exact beam
Revolute joint
Flexible joint
Actuator
Wind Turbine Design
ANBA (Anisotropic Beam Analysis) cross

sectional model (Giavotto et al., 1983):
Evaluation of cross sectional stiffness
(6 by 6 fully populated)
Recovery of sectional stresses and strains
Compute sectional
stiffness of equivalent
beam model
Compute cross sectional

stresses and strains
Rigid body
Geometrically exact beam

Revolute joint
Flexible joint
Actuator
Wind
Wind Turbine Design
Measurement
noise
Wind Turbine Design
Blade parameterization:
Chord and twist shape
functions deform a
baseline configuration
Constraints:
Noise constraint (V tip):
regulation in region II1/2
Torque-TSR stability
Max chord
Richer shape with fewer

dofs
Modeling:
Extract reduced model from
multibody one
Linearize reduced model
Synthesize controller:
Compute LQR gains
Analyses:
DLCs (IEC61400: load
envelope, fatigue DELs)
Eigenfrequencies
(Campbell diagram)
Stability
Update process:
Wind Turbine Design
Update cross
sectional models
Compute constraints:
Max tip deflection
Frequency placement
Compute beam
stiffness and
inertial properties
Update multibody
model
Analyses:
Eigenfrequencies
Max deflection
Fatigue
Max stresses/strains
Buckling
Update non-structural mass
Analyses:
Transfer loads from
multibody to cross sectional
models
Recover sectional stresses
and strains
Compute cost function:
Weight
Compute constraints:
safety
POLI-Wind Stress/strains
Research Lab
margins
Structural Blade Modeling

Cross section types
Sectional structural dofs
Wind Turbine Design
Spanwise shape
functions
Location of structural dofs
and load computation
section
Load computation
section
Twisted shear webs
Straight webs
Caps extend to
embrace full root circle
3D FEM Modeling
Wind Turbine Design
3D CAD with solid and shell (no offsets) meshing directly

from preliminary design optimizer:
Webs
Web core
Internal skin
= Complete model
Spar caps
Skin core
LE & TE reinforcements
External skin
Analyses
FEM Analyses and Update

of Aeroelastic Models
Stress/strain/fatigue:
Wind Turbine Design
- Fatigue constraint not satisfied at

first iteration on 3D FEM model
- Modify constraint based on 3D FEM
analysis
- Converged at 2nd iteration
Peak stress on initial

model
Buckling:
-
Buckling constraint not satisfied at first iteration

Update skin thickness
Update trailing edge reinforcement strip
Converged at 2nd iteration
Fatigue damage
constraint satisfied
Increased skin
thickness
Increased trailing
edge strip
Wind Turbine Design
Parameter: radius, max chord, etc.

Example: tapering
Example: AEP over weight
2MW 45m Wind Turbine Blade
Wind Turbine Design
Currently undergoing certification at TV SD
CNC machined model of

aluminum alloy for visual
inspection of blade shape
Design developed in partnership with Gurit (UK)

POLItecnico
di MIlano
An Exercise in Blade Design:

Integrated Active and Passive
Load Control in Wind Turbines
Need for Load Mitigation
Wind Turbine Design
Trends in wind energy:

Increasing wind turbine size
Off-shore wind
To
decrease cost of energy:

Reduce extreme loads
Reduce fatigue damage
Limit actuator duty cycle
Ensure high reliability/availability
Active Load Mitigation: Pitch Control
Wind Turbine Design
Individual blade Pitch Control (IPC)

Inner loop (collective pitch): regulation to
set point and alleviation of gust loads
Outer loops (individual pitch): reduction of
- Deterministic (periodic) loads due to
blade weight and non-uniform inflow
- Non-deterministic loads, caused by
fast temporal and small spatial
turbulent wind fluctuations
Uniform wind
Turbulent wind
Active Load Mitigation: Predictive

LiDAR-Enabled Pitch Control
Wind Turbine Design
LiDAR: generic model, captures realistically wind

filtering due to volumetric averaging
Receding Horizon Control: model predictive
formulation with wind scheduled linear
model, real-time implementation based on
CVXGEN
Non-Homogeneous LQR Control: approximation
of RHC, extremely low computational cost
LiDAR prediction span
Reduced
peak values
Reduced
peak values
Reduced peak to
peak oscillations
Wind Turbine Design
Active Load Mitigation:

Distributed Control
Flow control devices:
TE flaps
Microtabs
Vortex generators
Active jets (plasma,
synthetic)
Morphing airfoils

(Credits: Risoe DTU)
(Credits: Risoe DTU)

(Chow and van Dam 2007)
(Credits: Smart Blade GmbH)
Active Load Mitigation: Limits and Issues
Wind Turbine Design
Pitch control:
Limited temporal bandwidth (max pitch rate 7-9
deg/sec)
Limited spatial bandwidth (pitching the whole blade
is ineffective for spatially small wind fluctuations)
Distributed control:
Alleviate temporal and spatial bandwidth issues
Complexity/availability/maintenance
Sensor-enabled control solutions:
Complexity/availability/maintenance
Off-shore: need to prove reliability,

availability, low maintenance in hostile
environments
Passive Load Mitigation

Passive control: loaded structure deforms so as to reduce load
Two main solutions:
Wind Turbine Design
- Bend-twist coupling (BTC): exploit

anisotropy of composite materials
- Swept (scimitar) blades
Angle fibers in skin

and/or spar caps
Potential advantages: no actuators, no moving parts, no sensors

Other passive control technologies (not discussed here):
-
Tuned masses (e.g. on off-shore wind turbines to damp nacelle-tower motions)

Passive flaps/tabs
Wind Turbine Design
Objectives
Present study:
Design BTC blades (all satisfying identical design requirements:
max tip deflection, flap freq., stress/strain, fatigue, buckling)
Consider trade-offs (load reduction/weight increase/complexity)
Identify optimal BTC blade configuration
Integrate passive BTC and active IPC
Exploit synergies between passive and active load control
Baseline uncoupled blade: 45m Class IIIA 2MW HAWT
Fully Coupled Blades

1. Identify optimal section-wise fiber rotation
Consider 6 candidate configurations
Wind Turbine Design
Skin angle
Spar-cap angle
BTC coupling parameter:
Fully Coupled Blades: Effects on Weight
Wind Turbine Design
Spar-caps: steep
increase
Skin: milder
increase
Spar-cap/skin
synergy
Stiffness driven design (flap freq. and max tip deflection constraints):
Need to restore stiffness by increasing spar/skin thickness
Fully Coupled Blades: Load Reduction
Wind Turbine Design
Spar-cap/skin synergy: good

load reduction with small
mass increase
Wind Turbine Design
Fully Coupled Blades:

Mechanism of Load Reduction
Fully Coupled Blades:

Effects on Duty Cycle
Wind Turbine Design
Less pitching from

active control because
blade passively selfunloads
Much reduced
life-time ADC
Partially Coupled Blades

2. Identify optimal span-wise fiber rotation: 5 candidate configurations
Wind Turbine Design
Reduce fatigue in
max chord region
Avoid thickness
increase to satisfy
stiffness-driven
constraints
Partially Coupled Blades: Effects on Mass
Wind Turbine Design
Fully coupled blade
Too little coupling
Partially Coupled Blades:

Effects on Loads
Wind Turbine Design
F30: load reduction close

to fully coupled case
Wind Turbine Design
Partially Coupled Blades:

Best compromise: similar load and ADC reduction as fully

coupled blade, decreased mass
Integrated Passive and Active Load

Alleviation
Baseline controller:
MIMO LQR
Wind Turbine Design
Individual blade pitch controller (Bossaniy 2003):

Coleman transform blade root loads
PID control for transformed d-q loads
Back-Coleman-transform to get pitch inputs
Integrated Passive and Active Load

Alleviation
Wind Turbine Design
Two IPC gain settings:

1. Mild: some load reduction, limited ADC increase
2. Aggressive: more load reduction, more ADC increase
Five blade/controller combinations:
BTC: best coupled blade + collective LQR
IPC1: uncoupled blade + mild IPC
BTC+IPC1: best coupled blade + mild IPC
IPC2: uncoupled blade + aggressive IPC
BTC+IPC2: best coupled blade + aggressive IPC
Wind Turbine Design
Integrated Passive/Active Control:

Effects on Loads
Synergistic effects of
combined passive and
active control
Integrated Passive/Active Control:

Not significant: ADC
very small here
Wind Turbine Design
Same ADC as baseline (but

great load reduction!)
Conclusions of Blade Design Exercise
Wind Turbine Design
Optimization-based blade design tools: enable automated design of

blades and satisfaction of all desired design requirements
BTC passive load control:
- Skin fiber rotation helps limiting spar-cap fiber angle
- Partial span-wise coupling limits fatigue and stiffness effects
Reduction for all quality metrics: loads, ADC, weight
Combined BTC/IPC passive/active control:
- Synergistic effects on load reduction
- BTC helps limiting ADC increase due to IPC (e.g., could have same
ADC as baseline blade with collective pitch control)
Outlook:
Manufacturing implications of BTC and partially coupled blades
Passive distributed control and integration with blade design and
active IPC control
Wind Turbine Design
Comprehensive Wind Turbine Modeling

Multibody models:
- Blades
- Tower
- Nacelle
- Drive train
- Actuators
Wind Turbine Design
Wake models:
Induced velocity
Induced swirl
Wake dynamics
Wake turbulence
(stiffness and mass spanwise distributions)
Aerodynamic models:
Tower/rotor interference
Nacelle, nacelle/rotor interference
Airfoil aerodynamic models:
Lift, drag and moment
Stall and dynamic stall
3D root (Coriolis) effects
Tip, root and hub losses
Unsteady aerodynamics
Wind models:
Mechanical properties of foundations
Direction
Hydro-dynamic models:
Spatial distribution
Wave and current loads
Temporal fluctuations
Floatation
Upstream wind turbine wakes
Mooring lines
Terrain orography effects

(airfoil lift, drag and moment, and dynamic stall loops)
Wind Turbine Design
Comprehensive Wind Turbine Modeling
Comprehensive Approach to
Wind Turbine System Identification
Fidelity of overall model depends on fidelity of sub-models & of their couplings
Wind Turbine Design
Fidelity of sub-models depends on:

Their ability to capture the relevant physics
Correct tuning of their parameters
Divide and conquer approach: identify all sub-models from specific observations
Identification of specific
sub-models
Blade
structural
properties
Airfoil
properties
Wake
properties
Drive-train
properties
Validated
comprehensive
model
Sub-model specific
experiments and measures
Identification of Blade Properties

1. Ground test
experimentation
Load deflection tests
Wind Turbine Design
Laser scan
of loaded blade
5. Improved
model
2. Natural freqs
and static
deflections
Aeroelastic simulations
Control laws
4. New
identified blade
properties
3. System
identification
Constrained optimization
Goal: match static deflection and
modes
Unknown: corrective function of the
blade distribution properties
Blade model: FEM
Cost function:
WLS and ML
POLI-Wind
Research
Lab
Optimization algorithm: SQP
Wind Turbine Design
WT2, the Wind Turbine in a Wind Tunnel

Goal: aeroelastically-scaled wind tunnel model of the Vestas V90 wind turbine
with individual blade pitch and torque control
13.8x3.8m, 14m/s, civil section:
Turbulence < 2%
With turbulence generators = 25%
13m turntable
Wind Turbine Design
Applications:
Testing of advanced control laws and supporting technologies
Testing of extreme operating conditions
Tuning of mathematical models
Aeroelasticity and system identification of wind turbines
Multiple wind turbine interactions
Off-shore wind turbines (moving platform actuated by
hydro-structural model)
4x3.8m, 55m/s, aeronautical section:

Turbulence <0.1%
Open-closed test section
Civil-Aeronautical Wind Tunnel
of the Politecnico di Milano
Aeroelastically
scaled blades
(70g, 1m)
Pitch actuator:
Zero backlash gearhead
Built-in encoder
Main shaft with

torque meter
Rotor sensor
electronics
Torque actuator:
Planetary gearhead
Torque and speed control
Pitch actuator
electronics
Slip ring
Conical spiral gears
WT2, the Wind Turbine in a Wind Tunnel

Good aerodynamic performance even at low
Reynolds (and currently being further improved)
Wind Turbine Design
Blockage correction verified by RANS CFD
Wind Turbine Design
The Politecnico di Milano Wind Tunnel
The Politecnico di Milano Wind Tunnel

Turn-table
Wind Turbine Design
13 m
Turbulence (boundary layer) generators

Low speed testing with
vertical wind profile
Multiple wind turbine
testing (wake-machine
interaction)
High speed testing
POLI-Wind
Research
Lab
Aerodynamic
characterization
(Cp-TSR- & CF-TSR- curves)
Design of an Aero-elastically Scaled

Composite Blade
Carbon fiber spars
Objective: size spars (width,

chordwise position & thickness)
for desired sectional stiffness
within mass budget
Cost function: sectional stiffness
error wrt target (scaled stiffness)
Constraints: lowest 3 frequencies
Wind Turbine Design
Airfoil cross section
Carbon fiber spars

for desired stiffness
Sectional optimization variables

(position, width, thickness)
Span-wise shape function interpolation
Chordwise Position
Width
Rohacell core with grooves

for the housing of carbon
fiber spars
Thickness
Film of glue to close pores

and ensure smooth finish
ANBA (ANisotropic Beam Analysis) FEM

cross sectional model:
Evaluation of cross sectional stiffness
(6 by 6 fully populated matrix)
Off-Shore Aero-Elastic Model
Wind Turbine Design
Goal: aeroelastically-scaled wind tunnel

model of off-shore wind turbine with
individual blade pitch and torque control
Applications:
Testing of control laws
Damping enhancement controllers
Load-reducing controllers
Floating platform effects on stability
6 DOF moving
platform
Platform
motion
WT
response
Proof of concept, 2 DOF hydraulic actuation (prescribed)

Real-time PC
running
mathematical
model of wet
part of offshore
machine
(hydro-elastic
model)
Wind Turbine Design
Wind Turbine Design
Individual Higher Harmonic Pitch Control

Inner loop: regulation to set point and
alleviation of gust loads
Middle loop: higher harmonic reduction
of deterministic (periodic) loads on
blades or shaft/tower (mainly due to
blade weight and non-uniformity of
spatial distribution of wind over
rotor disk)
Outer loop: non-deterministic loads,
caused by fast temporal and small
spatial scales
2.5MW wind turbine:
Uniform wind
Turbulent wind
Wind Observers
Goal: obtain an instantaneous description of the wind field over the rotor disc
Applications:
Feed forward and/or scheduled control laws
Simple low cost alternative to LiDAR
(but no prediction capabilities)
Collection of accurate wind field data
using wind turbines as wind sensors
Hub Wind [m/sec]

Flap Moment @ root [Nm]
Observed Yaw Angle []
Wind Turbine Design
Blade loads
20
18
16
14
12
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
x 10
4
3
Load sensors
2
1
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
200
300
400
500
600
700
Wind Observer
States describing wind field
30
20
10
0
-10
Real
Observed
-20
-30
100
Time [sec]
Wind Turbine
Blade load sensors
Approach:
Demodulate blade loads
Wind spatial field is contained
in load phasing and magnitude
Wind Turbine Design
Stability Analysis of Wind Turbines

The small amplitude perturbation response of a wind
turbine around a trim condition can be described by a
linear time periodic (LTP) system
Approaches:
Perturb about a trim point
Wind Turbine Design
Identification of (Periodic) ARX + periodic exogenous inputs

Obtain damping factors (LTP extension) for modes of interest
Quality of identified model
First blade
edgewise mode
Rotor in-plane
mode
Loss of stability of first collective

in-plane rotor mode for a 80m
span blade
Conclusions
Simulation:
key enabler for design and optimization
Model validation:
key enabler for reliable predictions
System identification: synergy between full scale and scaled testing
Wind Turbine Design
Field (full-scale) testing
Validated mathematical models
Wind tunnel (scaled) testing
Upscaling
Vast field of ideas/technologies that will be explored/developed:
Advanced blades
Advanced controls
Offshore wind

(figures from University of Stuttgart, GE, NASA, other sources)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the POLI-Wind team!
Wind Turbine Design
Special thanks to M. Bassetti, P. Bettini, M. Biava, F. Campagnolo,

S. Calovi, S. Cacciola, F. Cadei, G. Campanardi, M. Capponi, A. Croce,
G. Galetto, L. Maffenini, P. Marrone, M. Mauri, S. Rota, G. Sala, A. Zasso
of the Politecnico di Milano
Funding provided by Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Clipper Windpower,
Alstom Wind, DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Italian
Ministry of Education, University and Research

Multidisciplinary Design of Wind Turbine Blades

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Multidisciplinary Design of Wind Turbine Blades

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Short Course on Wind Energy

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Holistic Design of Wind Turbines

Wind Turbine Design

- Generator (RPM, weight,

GE wind turbine (from inhabitat.com)

Pitch-torque control laws:

Holistic Design of Wind Turbines

Wind Turbine Design

Lengthy loops to satisfy all

Different simulation models

There is a need for multi-disciplinary optimization tools, which must:

Be fast (hours/days) (on standard desktop hardware!)

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Holistic Design of Wind Turbines

Wind Turbine Design

Constraints: ensure a viable design by enforcing all necessary design

Sizing of a new machine

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

min cost s.t. constraints

- Definition of complete HAWT

- Compute cost (mass)

Automatic 3D CAD model

Automatic 3D FEM meshing

Verification of design constraints

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Constraint/model update heuristic (to repair constraint violations)

Coarse level: 2D FEM section & beam models

- ANBA 2D FEM sectional analysis

Fine level: 3D FEM

Wind Turbine Design

Definition of sectional design

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

ANBA (Anisotropic Beam Analysis) cross

Compute cross sectional

Geometrically exact beam

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

Richer shape with fewer

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

Structural Blade Modeling

Sectional structural dofs

Wind Turbine Design

Twisted shear webs

POLI-Wind Research Lab

Wind Turbine Design

3D CAD with solid and shell (no offsets) meshing directly

POLI-Wind Research Lab

FEM Analyses and Update

Wind Turbine Design

- Fatigue constraint not satisfied at