Modeling unsteady loads on wind-turbine blade sections from periodic structural oscillations and impinging gusts

TL;DR

This paper evaluates simple analytical models and high-fidelity simulations to predict unsteady aerodynamic loads on wind turbine blades subjected to periodic gusts and oscillations, highlighting their effectiveness and limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a potential-flow analytical model for unsteady lift prediction and validates it against numerical simulations, emphasizing the importance of unsteady flow modeling in turbine design.

Findings

Good agreement between model and simulations at low to moderate amplitudes

Deviations occur near flow-separation limits

Unsteady flow models can improve turbine blade robustness

Abstract

Many traditional methods for wind turbine design and analysis assume quasi-steady aerodynamics, but atmospheric flows are inherently unsteady and modern turbine blades are susceptible to aeroelastic deformations. This study therefore evaluates the effectiveness of simple analytical models for capturing the effects of such unsteady conditions on wind-turbine blades. We consider a pitching and plunging airfoil in a periodic transverse gust as an idealization of unsteady loading scenarios on a blade section. A potential-flow model derived from a linear combination of canonical problems is proposed to predict the unsteady lift on a two-dimensional airfoil in the small-perturbation limit. We then perform high-fidelity two-dimensional numerical simulations of a NACA-0012 airfoil over a range of periodic pitch, plunge, and gust disturbances, and quantify the amplitude and phase of the unsteady lift response. Good agreement with the model predictions is found for low to moderate forcing amplitudes and frequencies, while deviations are observed when the angle-of-attack amplitudes approach the static flow-separation limit of the airfoil. Potential explanations are given for the cases in which the ideal-flow theory proves insufficient. This theoretical framework and numerical evaluation motivate the inclusion of unsteady flow models in design and simulation tools in order to increase the robustness and operational lifespans of wind turbine blades in real flow conditions.