Development of Computational and Experimental Benchmark Data for Wind Turbine Aeroelastic Algorithms

Aeroelastic algorithms that predict a rotor blade's aerodynamic performance and structural response efficiently and rapidly as a tool for preliminary design stages are an ongoing concern for the professional practitioners. These aeroelastic algorithms require validation data upon which their accuracy can be determined. To this end, a validation process was investigated and applied to determine the accuracy of the Preliminary Aeroelastic Analysis of Wind Turbine (PAAC-WTB) algorithm, an algorithm that was recently developed in the Advanced Dynamic Research group. A preliminary wind tunnel test was performed on a 3D-printed reduced scale model of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) S809 blade, and CFD and FEA analysis was performed using ANSYS on an S809 blade model. Comparison of the algorithm results against experimental and ANSYS results showed good agreement and thus the validation process was deemed successful.