Abstract

BABAWARUN, Tolulope; HO, Wei Hua  and  NGWANGWA, Harry. Stress validation of finite element model of a small-scale wind turbine blade. J. energy South. Afr. [online]. 2019, vol.30, n.2, pp.87-97. ISSN 2413-3051.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3051/2019/v30i2a6355.

Wind turbine blades are the first mechanical part of a wind turbine that interacts with the wind and hence play a key role in wind power generation. It is important that the wind turbine blade is tested for structural integrity in accordance to design code IEC 61400-23 such as strain limits, fatigue life, blade tip clearance limit, and surface stress. This paper focuses on the calculation and validation of static bending stresses in the blade; it presents the experimental and simulated stress analysis of a small-scale wind turbine blade. The simulation and 3D design software ANSYS, version 19.0 is used in the finite element analysis (FEA). By using FEA, we aim to capture the stress generated on the blade geometry under static loading and unloading conditions. As a first step towards this, the finite element results were validated against experimental results on a kestrel E230i turbine blade. The blade was fixed at one end, loaded, and unloaded statically at three selected points. The finite element results are calculated within a 25% error margin of the experimental results. A reverse engineering procedure was used to determine the appropriate ANSYS model blade properties that were used, as the exact material properties were not available from the manufacturer. HIGHLIGHTS • A single small-scale wind turbine blade is analysed. • Static loading and unloading is experimentally conducted on the blade. • Finite element model simulation is done using ANSYS version 19.0 under similar conditions as in the experiment. • Comparison of result for both analyses was done

Keywords : ANSYS; bending strain measurements.

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