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Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine

Wind energy is considered one of the major sources of renewable energy. Nowadays, wind turbine blades could exceed 100 m to maximize the generated power and minimize produced energy cost. Due to the enormous size of the wind turbines, the blades are subjected to failure by aerodynamics loads or inst...

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Main Author: Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
Format: Thesis
Published: AUC Knowledge Fountain 2021
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access_status_str Open Access
author Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
author_browse Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
author_facet Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
author_sort Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
collection Thesis
description Wind energy is considered one of the major sources of renewable energy. Nowadays, wind turbine blades could exceed 100 m to maximize the generated power and minimize produced energy cost. Due to the enormous size of the wind turbines, the blades are subjected to failure by aerodynamics loads or instability issues. Also, the gravitational and centrifugal loads affect the wind turbine design because of the huge mass of the blades. Accordingly, wind turbine simulation became efficient in blade design to reduce the cost of its manufacturing. The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is considered an effective way to study the turbine's behavior when the air and the blade are simulated as one system. In the present study, NREL 5 MW wind turbine with a blade length of 61.5m long is selected as a reference turbine to apply the FSI. The FSI is performed using three commercial software. ANSYS Fluent is used for the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. The Finite Element (FE) model is simulated by Abaqus. In order to link both models together and transfer the data between them, MPCCI software is used. The blade is subjected to flap-wise deflection, edge-wise deflection, and torsion. So, a 2-way coupling simulation is implemented to optimize the blade deformation to protect it from hitting the tower, mitigate the effect of cyclic loading, and prevent the blade stall. This study introduced two passive optimization methods: material Bend Twist Coupling (BTC) and blade root fixation. One of the achievements of this study is that it is considered the first FSI research implemented at the AUC. Also, running the FSI model with three different codes and linking between them was another challenge. Moreover, it is concluded from this research that the 2-way coupling gives more accurate results than the 1-way coupling, although it is complicated. Although the centrifugal force reduces the flap-wise deflection, it significantly impacts the blade twist angle. The used material BTC optimization method improved the blade torsion stiffness while the root fixation improved the longitudinal stiffness. The improvement in the blade protects it from fatigue loading and stall by reducing the peak-to-peak amplitude and twisting the blade to feather.
format Thesis
id oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2675
institution American University in Cairo (Egypt)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:35:50.652Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
publishDate 2021
publishDateRange 2021
publishDateSort 2021
publisher AUC Knowledge Fountain
publisherStr AUC Knowledge Fountain
record_format dspace
source_str AUC Knowledge Fountain — bepress
spelling oai:fount.aucegypt.edu:etds-2675 Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady Wind energy is considered one of the major sources of renewable energy. Nowadays, wind turbine blades could exceed 100 m to maximize the generated power and minimize produced energy cost. Due to the enormous size of the wind turbines, the blades are subjected to failure by aerodynamics loads or instability issues. Also, the gravitational and centrifugal loads affect the wind turbine design because of the huge mass of the blades. Accordingly, wind turbine simulation became efficient in blade design to reduce the cost of its manufacturing. The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is considered an effective way to study the turbine's behavior when the air and the blade are simulated as one system. In the present study, NREL 5 MW wind turbine with a blade length of 61.5m long is selected as a reference turbine to apply the FSI. The FSI is performed using three commercial software. ANSYS Fluent is used for the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. The Finite Element (FE) model is simulated by Abaqus. In order to link both models together and transfer the data between them, MPCCI software is used. The blade is subjected to flap-wise deflection, edge-wise deflection, and torsion. So, a 2-way coupling simulation is implemented to optimize the blade deformation to protect it from hitting the tower, mitigate the effect of cyclic loading, and prevent the blade stall. This study introduced two passive optimization methods: material Bend Twist Coupling (BTC) and blade root fixation. One of the achievements of this study is that it is considered the first FSI research implemented at the AUC. Also, running the FSI model with three different codes and linking between them was another challenge. Moreover, it is concluded from this research that the 2-way coupling gives more accurate results than the 1-way coupling, although it is complicated. Although the centrifugal force reduces the flap-wise deflection, it significantly impacts the blade twist angle. The used material BTC optimization method improved the blade torsion stiffness while the root fixation improved the longitudinal stiffness. The improvement in the blade protects it from fatigue loading and stall by reducing the peak-to-peak amplitude and twisting the blade to feather. 2021-06-15T07:00:00Z thesis application/pdf https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1649 https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2675/viewcontent/mohamed_sayed_abdelhay_thesis.pdf Theses and Dissertations AUC Knowledge Fountain Wind Turbine Fluid-Structure Interaction Ansys Fluent Abaqus MPCCI Composite blade Bend-twist coupling Flexible blade Aeroelastic coupling Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics Applied Mechanics Computational Engineering Energy Systems Engineering Mechanics Mechanics of Materials Structures and Materials
spellingShingle Wind Turbine
Fluid-Structure Interaction
Ansys Fluent
Abaqus
MPCCI
Composite blade
Bend-twist coupling
Flexible blade
Aeroelastic coupling
Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics
Applied Mechanics
Computational Engineering
Energy Systems
Engineering Mechanics
Mechanics of Materials
Structures and Materials
Abd-Elhay, Mohamed Sayed Elkady
Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title_full Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title_fullStr Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title_full_unstemmed Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title_short Fluid-Structure Interaction of NREL 5-MW Wind Turbine
title_sort fluid structure interaction of nrel 5 mw wind turbine
topic Wind Turbine
Fluid-Structure Interaction
Ansys Fluent
Abaqus
MPCCI
Composite blade
Bend-twist coupling
Flexible blade
Aeroelastic coupling
Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics
Applied Mechanics
Computational Engineering
Energy Systems
Engineering Mechanics
Mechanics of Materials
Structures and Materials
url https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1649
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/context/etds/article/2675/viewcontent/mohamed_sayed_abdelhay_thesis.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT abdelhaymohamedsayedelkady fluidstructureinteractionofnrel5mwwindturbine