With the increasing global appetite for wind power and worldwide government incentive schemes to promote wind industry growth a plethora of wind turbine concepts are being manufactured. Generally the concepts are split into two classes: horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) with rotation about a shaft pointing into wind and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) with rotation about a vertical shaft. The vast majority of research and development work undertaken in this industry has focused on large two and three bladed HAWTs. As a result there are analytical tools available for most aspects of rotary aeromechanic performance and loads analysis of HAWTs but there are no rotary aeromechanics analytical methods available for VAWTs or for mirco and small HWATs with four blades or more. Currently design work of VAWT and small HAWT must use analytical approximations, generally neglecting unsteady aerodynamic effect. The need to model unsteady aerodynamics, in order to correctly predict loads and performance is well establish in the HAWT research community. This capability is also vital for the accurate prediction of loads and performance in VAWT systems.
This project seeks to develop and validate a rotary aeromechanics analysis code to simulate the performance, loads and vibration of VAWTs and micro and small HAWTs to support design, certification and siting analysis requirements.