65kW Wind Turbine design validation

Hi,

Hope to start using some of the powerful tools of CAElinux soon to validate my 65kW wind turbine that has been about a decade in design, however although I'm a senior project engineer and project manager I'm an electrical engineer by training and am not versed in FEA or CFD.

Will be looking for assistance and suport from any and all good souls in the months to come: the most recent design iteration will not be available for another 10 weeks to finish detailing in VariCAD the 3d solids model.

Hoping to hear from any interested parties,

Cheers,

xian
(Christian, but just by name )

Hi,

Thanks for the welcome. The first module to be validated will be the tower design, a 3-face lattice structure using tubular legs and angle iron bracing, built of 10 sections of 6m each, plus a footing. Initial analysis is for FEA to identify any weak points in the structure (i.e. overloaded members or connections) for a number of combined wind and ice loadings, given a fixed dead load (the wind tubine head: turbine and nacelle).

As mentioned it's going to be a few weeks before I'll have finished detailing latest tower iteration. Working with VariCAD as it's the only serious solids modelling package I found that runs on Linux.

Looking forward to moving forward. Looking to build first full wind turbine package in June 2015.

Detailing and analysis for this schedule to happen must be completed by July 2014, which is a chunk of work !

More to follow as available.

Cheers,

xian

You may want to consider getting a structural engineer on your team.

Another consideration, you may want to compare using a tubular/cylindrical member for the tower versus a truss type tower.
The weight may be more but the fabrication costs could be less depending on where it's constructed. The foundation may also be simpler and less costly using a tubular member.

I did already CFD Simulations with wind turbines. A good place to get help with CFD: www.cfd-online.com/
A structural analysis is not that tricky, but a CFD calcualtion really is. There are so many variables, and it is difficult to set them right and then to determine if the simulation output is realistic. Without knowledge and experimental validation data, it might take much longer than you planned.
Openfoam could perform the CFD task for you. Unfortunately I'm not into it.

"you may want to compare using a tubular/cylindrical member"
This seems to be right. I live in Germany. Almost all big Wind Turbines are bulid as a tubular. Concrete is often used. Much more weight, but cheaper than steel.

"You may want to consider getting a structural engineer"
Right - can do the structural task for you. You might especially consider somebody who is into CFD and aerodynamic. Otherwise you might waste a lot of time just to get familiar with the stuff.