| As international growth in wind energy steadily increases and the world gradually moves away from fossil fuels, advanced computational tools are required to produce accurate and fast predictions in wind turbine performance, and to allow efficient design cycles using advanced materials and manufacturing methods. Currently, aerostructural analysis often employs the relatively fast but inaccurate Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory, while accurate but slower Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods are generally used for aerodynamic analysis alone.To bridge the gap between speed and accuracy, a 3D panel code, TriPan, was coupled with an advanced structural Finite Element Method (FEM) code, TACS, to perform aerostructural analysis for wind turbine blades. In addition, the framework allows the replacement of the panel solver by higher fidelity solvers to increase the accuracy of the overall aerostructural solution. |
