Publications

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A scaling methodology is described in the present paper for extreme-scale wind turbines (rated at 10 MW or more) that allow their sub-scale turbines to capture their key blade dynamics and aeroelastic deflections. For extreme-scale turbines, such deflections and dynamics can be substantial and are primarily driven by centrifugal, thrust and gravity forces as well as the net torque. Each of these are in turn a function of various wind conditions, including turbulence levels that cause shear, veer, and gust loads. The 13.2 MW rated SNL100-03 rotor design, having a blade length of 100-meters, is herein scaled to the CART3 wind turbine at NREL using 25% geometric scaling and blade mass and wind speed scaled by gravo-aeroelastic constraints. In order to mimic the ultralight structure on the advanced concept extreme-scale design the scaling results indicate that the gravo-aeroelastically scaled blades for the CART3 are be three times lighter and 25% longer than the current CART3 blades. A benefit of this scaling approach is that the scaled wind speeds needed for testing are reduced (in this case by a factor of two), allowing testing under extreme gust conditions to be much more easily achieved. Most importantly, this scaling approach can investigate extreme-scale concepts including dynamic behaviors and aeroelastic deflections (including flutter) at an extremely small fraction of the full-scale cost.

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A wind turbine blade's structural dynamic response is simulated and analysed with the goal of characterizing the presence and severity of a shear web disbond. Computer models of a 5MW offshore utility-scale wind turbine were created to develop effective algorithms for detecting such damage. Through data analysis and with the use of blade measurements, a shear web disbond was quantified according to its length. An aerodynamic sensitivity study was conducted to ensure robustness of the detection algorithms. In all analyses, the blade's flap-wise acceleration and root-pitching moment were the clearest indicators of the presence and severity of a shear web disbond. A combination of blade and non-blade measurements was formulated into a final algorithm for the detection and quantification of the disbond. The probability of detection was 100% for the optimized wind speed ranges in laminar, 30% horizontal shear and 60% horizontal shear conditions.

This final report is a compilation of research efforts – funded by the US Department of Energy Wind and Water Power Technologies Office over a four-year period from FY11 through FY14. The goals of this research program were to develop and evaluate technical innovations with promise for maximizing revenues and reducing levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for offshore wind plants – more specifically the goals of the Structural Health and Prognostics Management (SHPM) program were to reduce O&M costs and increase energy capture through use of SHPM-based technologies. A technology roadmap was developed at the start of the project to guide the research efforts. This roadmap identified and outlined six major research thrust areas each having five stages of maturity. Research was conducted in each of these thrust areas, as documented throughout this report, although a major focus was on development of damage detection strategies for the most frequent blade damage conditions and damage mitigation and life-extension strategies via changes in turbine operations (smart loads management). The work summarized in this compilation report is the product of the work of many researchers. A summary of the major findings, status of the SHPM Technology Roadmap and recommendations for future work are also provided.

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A series of design studies were performed to inv estigate the effects of flatback airfoils on blade performance and weight for large blades using the Sandi a 100-meter blade designs as a starting point. As part of the study, the effects of varying the blade slenderness on blade structural performance was investigated. The advantages and disadvantages of blad e slenderness with respect to tip deflection, flap- wise & edge-wise fatigue resistance, panel buckling capacity, flutter speed, manufacturing labor content, blade total weight, and aerodynamic design load magn itude are quantified. Following these design studies, a final blade design (SNL100-03) was prod uced, which was based on a highly slender design using flatback airfoils. The SNL100-03 design with flatback airfoils has weight of 49 tons, which is about 16% decrease from its SNL100-02 predecessor that used conventional sharp trailing edge airfoils. Although not systematically optimized, the SNL100 -03 design study provides an assessment of and insight into the benefits of flatback airfoils for la rge blades as well as insights into the limits or negative consequences of high blade slenderness resulting from a highly slender SNL100-03 planform as was chosen in the final design definition. This docum ent also provides a description of the final SNL100-03 design definition and is intended to be a companion document to the distribution of the NuMAD blade model files for SNL100-03, which are made publicly available. A summary of the major findings of the Sandia 100-meter blade development program, from the initial SNL100-00 baseline blade through the fourth SNL100-03 blade study, is provided. This summary includes the major findings and outcomes of blade d esign studies, pathways to mitigate the identified large blade design drivers, and tool development that were produced over the course of this five-year research program. A summary of large blade tec hnology needs and research opportunities is also presented.

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Operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind plants are significantly higher than the current costs for land-based (onshore) wind plants. One way to reduce these costs would be to implement a structural health and prognostic management (SHPM) system as part of a condition based maintenance paradigm with smart load management and utilize a state-based cost model to assess the economics associated with use of the SHPM system. To facilitate the development of such a system a multi-scale modeling and simulation approach developed in prior work is used to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and faults, and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. This methodology was used to investigate two case studies: (1) the effects of rotor imbalance due to pitch error (aerodynamic imbalance) and mass imbalance and (2) disbond of the shear web; both on a 5-MW offshore wind turbine in the present report. Sensitivity analyses were carried out for the detection strategies of rotor imbalance and shear web disbond developed in prior work by evaluating the robustness of key measurement parameters in the presence of varying wind speeds, horizontal shear, and turbulence. Detection strategies were refined for these fault mechanisms and probabilities of detection were calculated. For all three fault mechanisms, the probability of detection was 96% or higher for the optimized wind speed ranges of the laminar, 30% horizontal shear, and 60% horizontal shear wind profiles. The revised cost model provided insight into the estimated savings in operations and maintenance costs as they relate to the characteristics of the SHPM system. The integration of the health monitoring information and O&M cost versus damage/fault severity information provides the initial steps to identify processes to reduce operations and maintenance costs for an offshore wind farm while increasing turbine availability, revenue, and overall profit.

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Offshore wind power production is an attractive clean energy option, but the difficulty of access can lead to expensive and rare opportunities for maintenance. As part of the Structural Health and Prognostics Management (SHPM) project at Sandia National Laboratories, smart loads management (controls) are investigated for their potential to increase the fatigue life of offshore wind turbine rotor blades. Derating refers to altering the rotor angular speed and blade pitch to limit power production and loads on the rotor blades. High- fidelity analysis techniques like 3D finite element modeling (FEM) should be used alongside beam models of wind turbine blades to characterize these control strategies in terms of their effect to mitigate fatigue damage and extend life of turbine blades. This study will consider a commonly encountered damage type for wind turbine blades, the trailing edge disbond, and show how FEM can be used to quantify the effect of operations and control strategies designed to extend the fatigue life of damaged blades. The Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) will be used to post-process the displacement and stress results to provide estimates of damage severity/criticality and provide a means to estimate the fatigue life under a given operations and control strategy. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

The availability of offshore wind resources in coastal regions, along with a high concentration of load centers in these areas, makes offshore wind energy an attractive opportunity for clean renewable electricity production. High infrastructure costs such as the offshore support structure and operation and maintenance costs for offshore wind technology, however, are significant obstacles that need to be overcome to make offshore wind a more cost-effective option. A vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotor configuration offers a potential transformative technology solution that significantly lowers cost of energy for offshore wind due to its inherent advantages for the offshore market. However, several potential challenges exist for VAWTs and this paper addresses one of them with an initial investigation of dynamic aeroelastic stability for large-scale, multi-megawatt VAWTs. The aeroelastic formulation and solution method from the BLade Aeroelastic STability Tool (BLAST) for HAWT blades was employed to extend the analysis capability of a newly developed structural dynamics design tool for VAWTs. This investigation considers the effect of configuration geometry, material system choice, and number of blades on the aeroelastic stability of a VAWT, and provides an initial scoping for potential aeroelastic instabilities in large-scale VAWT designs. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

When considering the future of offshore wind energy, developing cost effective methods of harnessing the offshore wind resource represents a significant challenge which must be overcome to make offshore wind a viable option. As the majority of the capital investment in offshore wind is in the form of infrastructure and operation and maintenance costs, reducing these expenditures could greatly reduce the cost of energy (COE) for an offshore wind project. Sandia National Laboratory and its partners (TU Delft, University of Maine, Iowa State, and TPI Composites) believe that vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) offer multiple advantages over other rotor configurations considering this new COE breakdown. The unique arrangement of a VAWT allows the heavy generator and related components to be located at the base of the tower as opposed to the top, as is typical of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT). This configuration lowers the topside CG which reduces the platform stability requirements, leading to smaller and cheaper platforms. Additionally this locates high maintenance systems close to the ocean surface thus increasing maintainability. To support this project and the general wind research community, the Offshore Wind ENergy Simulation (OWENS) toolkit is being developed in conjunction with Texas A&M as an open source, modular aero-elastic analysis code with the capability to analyze floating VAWTS. The OWENS toolkit aims to establish a robust and flexible finite element framework and VAWT mesh generation utility, coupled with a modular interface that allows users to integrate easily with existing codes, such as aerodynamic and hydrodynamic codes.

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A series of design studies are performed to investigate the effects of advanced core materials and a new core material strategy on blade weight and performance for large blades using the Sandia 100-meter blade designs as a starting point. The initial core material design studies were based on the SNL100-01 100- meter carbon spar design. Advanced core material with improved performance to weight was investigated with the goal to reduce core material content in the design and reduce blade weight. A secondary element of the core study was to evaluate the suitability of core materials from natural, regrowable sources such as balsa and recyclable foam materials. The new core strategy for the SNL100-02 design resulted in a design mass of 59 tons, which is a 20% reduction from the most recent SNL100-01 carbon spar design and over 48% reduction from the initial SNL100-00 all-glass baseline blade. This document provides a description of the final SNL100-02 design, includes a description of the major design modifications, and summarizes the pertinent blade design information. This document is also intended to be a companion document to the distribution of the NuMAD blade model files for SNL100-02 that are made publicly available.

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Offshore wind turbines are an attractive source for clean and renewable energy for reasons including their proximity to population centers and higher capacity factors. One obstacle to the more widespread installation of offshore wind turbines in the USA, however, is that recent projections of offshore operations and maintenance costs vary from two to five times the land-based costs. One way in which these costs could be reduced is through use of a structural health and prognostics management (SHPM) system as part of a condition-based maintenance paradigm with smart loads management. Our paper contributes to the development of such strategies by developing an initial roadmap for SHPM, with application to the blades. One of the key elements of the approach is a multiscale simulation approach developed to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. A case study of a trailing edge disbond is analysed to demonstrate the multiscale sensitivity of damage approach and to show the potential life extension and increased energy capture that can be achieved using simple changes in the overall turbine control and loads management strategy. Finally, the integration of health monitoring information, economic considerations such as repair costs versus state of health, and a smart loads management methodology provides an initial roadmap for reducing operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind farms while increasing turbine availability and overall profit.

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Operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind plants are significantly higher than the current costs for land-based (onshore) wind plants. One way to reduce these costs would be to implement a structural health and prognostic management (SHPM) system as part of a condition based maintenance paradigm with smart load management and utilize a state-based cost model to assess the economics associated with use of the SHPM system. To facilitate the development of such a system a multi-scale modeling approach developed in prior work is used to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and faults, and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. This methodology was used to investigate two case studies: (1) the effects of rotor imbalance due to pitch error (aerodynamic imbalance) and mass imbalance and (2) disbond of the shear web; both on a 5-MW offshore wind turbine in the present report. Based on simulations of damage in the turbine model, the operational measurements that demonstrated the highest sensitivity to the damage/faults were the blade tip accelerations and local pitching moments for both imbalance and shear web disbond. The initial cost model provided a great deal of insight into the estimated savings in operations and maintenance costs due to the implementation of an effective SHPM system. The integration of the health monitoring information and O&M cost versus damage/fault severity information provides the initial steps to identify processes to reduce operations and maintenance costs for an offshore wind farm while increasing turbine availability, revenue, and overall profit.

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A series of design studies to investigate the effect of carbon on blade weight and performance for large blades was performed using the Sandia 100-meter All-glass Baseline Blade design as a starting point. This document provides a description of the final carbon blade design, which is termed as SNL100-01. This report includes a summary of the design modifications applied to the baseline all-glass 100-meter design and a description of the NuMAD model files that are made publicly available. This document is intended primarily to be a companion document to the distribution of the NuMAD blade model files for SNL100-01.

Operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind plants are expected to be significantly higher than the current costs for onshore plants. One way in which these costs may be able to be reduced is through the use of a structural health and prognostic management system as part of a condition based maintenance paradigm with smart load management. To facilitate the creation of such a system a multiscale modeling approach has been developed to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. The developed methodology was used to investigate the effects of a candidate blade damage feature, a trailing edge disbond, on a 5-MW offshore wind turbine and the measurements that demonstrated the highest sensitivity to the damage were the local pitching moments around the disbond. The multiscale method demonstrated that these changes were caused by a local decrease in the blade's torsional stiffness due to the disbond, which also resulted in changes in the blade's local strain field. Full turbine simulations were also used to demonstrate that derating the turbine power by as little as 5% could extend the fatigue life of a blade by as much as a factor of 3. The integration of the health monitoring information, conceptual repair cost versus damage size information, and this load management methodology provides an initial roadmap for reducing operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind farms while increasing turbine availability and overall profit.

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Heliostat vibrations can degrade optical pointing accuracy while fatiguing the structural components. This paper reports the use of structural dynamic measurements for design evaluation and monitoring of heliostat vibrations. A heliostat located at the National Solar Thermal Testing Facility (NSTTF) at Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been instrumented to measure its modes of vibration, strain and displacements under wind loading. The information gained from these tests will be used to evaluate and improve structural models that predict the motions/deformations of the heliostat due to gravitational and dynamic wind loadings. These deformations can cause optical errors and motions that degrade the performance of the heliostat. The main contributions of this work include: (1) demonstration of the role of structural dynamic tests (also known as modal tests) to provide a characterization of the important dynamics of the heliostat structure as they relate to durability and optical accuracy, (2) the use of structural dynamic tests to provide data to evaluate and improve the accuracy of computer-based design models, and (3) the selection of sensors and data-processing techniques that are appropriate for long-term monitoring of heliostat motions. Copyright © 2011 by ASME.

The preliminary design for a three-bladed cross-flow rotor for a reference marine hydrokinetic turbine is presented. A rotor performance design code is described, along with modifications to the code to allow prediction of blade support strut drag as well as interference between two counter-rotating rotors. The rotor is designed to operate in a reference site corresponding to a riverine environment. Basic rotor performance and rigid-body loads calculations are performed to size the rotor elements and select the operating speed range. The preliminary design is verified with a simple finite element model that provides estimates of bending stresses during operation. A concept for joining the blades and support struts is developed and analyzed with a separate finite element analysis. Rotor mass, production costs, and annual energy capture are estimated in order to allow calculations of system cost-of-energy. Evaluation Only. Created with Aspose.Pdf.Kit. Copyright 2002-2011 Aspose Pty Ltd Evaluation Only. Created with Aspose.Pdf.Kit. Copyright 2002-2011 Aspose Pty Ltd

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The shear webs and laminates of core panels of wind turbine blades must be designed to avoid panel buckling while minimizing blade weight. Typically, buckling resistance is evaluated by consideration of the load-deflection behavior of a blade using finite element analysis (FEA) or full-scale static loading of a blade to failure under a simulated extreme loading condition. This paper examines an alternative means for evaluating blade buckling resistance using non-destructive modal tests or FEA. In addition, panel resonances can be utilized for structural health monitoring by observing changes in the modal parameters of these panel resonances, which are only active in a portion of the blade that is susceptible to failure. Additionally, panel resonances are considered for updating of panel laminate model parameters by correlation with test data. During blade modal tests conducted at Sandia Labs, a series of panel modes with increasing complexity was observed. This paper reports on the findings of these tests, describes potential ways to utilize panel resonances for blade evaluation, health monitoring, and design, and reports recent numerical results to evaluate panel resonances for use in blade structural health assessment.

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The principal design drivers in the certification of wind turbine blades are ultimate strength, fatigue resistance, adequate tip-tower clearance, and buckling resistance. Buckling resistance is typically strongly correlated to both ultimate strength and fatigue resistance. A composite shell with spar caps forms the airfoil shape of a blade and reinforcing shear webs are placed inside the blade to stiffen the blade in the flap-wise direction. The spar caps are dimensioned and the shear webs are placed so as to add stiffness to unsupported panel regions and reduce their length. The panels are not the major flap-wise load carrying element of a blade; however, they must be designed carefully to avoid buckling while minimizing blade weight. Typically, buckling resistance is evaluated by consideration of the load-deflection behavior of a blade using finite element analysis (FEA) or full-scale static testing of blades under a simulated extreme loading condition. The focus of this paper is on the use of experimental modal analysis to measure localized resonances of the blade panels. It can be shown that the resonant behavior of these panels can also provide a means to evaluate buckling resistance by means of analytical or experimental modal analysis. Further, panel resonances have use in structural health monitoring by observing changes in modal parameters associated with panel resonances, and use in improving panel laminate model parameters by correlation with test data. In recent modal testing of wind turbine blades, a set of panel modes were measured. This paper will report on the findings of these tests and accompanying numerical and analytical modeling efforts aimed at investigating the potential uses of panel resonances for blade evaluation, health monitoring, and design.

The blades of a modern wind turbine are critical components central to capturing and transmitting most of the load experienced by the system. They are complex structural items composed of many layers of fiber and resin composite material and typically, one or more shear webs. Large turbine blades being developed today are beyond the point of effective trial-and-error design of the past and design for reliability is always extremely important. Section analysis tools are used to reduce the three-dimensional continuum blade structure to a simpler beam representation for use in system response calculations to support full system design and certification. One model simplification approach is to analyze the two-dimensional blade cross sections to determine the properties for the beam. Another technique is to determine beam properties using static deflections of a full three-dimensional finite element model of a blade. This paper provides insight into discrepancies observed in outputs from each approach. Simple two-dimensional geometries and three-dimensional blade models are analyzed in this investigation. Finally, a subset of computational and experimental section properties for a full turbine blade are compared.

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In this paper we present the results of a study to quantify uncertainty in experimental modal parameters due to test set-up uncertainty, measurement uncertainty, and data analysis uncertainty. Uncertainty quantification is required to accomplish a number of tasks including model updating, model validation, and assessment of unit-tounit variation. We consider uncertainty in the modal parameters due to a number of sources including force input location/direction, force amplitude, instrumentation bias, support conditions, and the analysis method (algorithmic variation). We compute the total uncertainty due to all of these sources, and discuss the importance of proper characterization of bias errors on the total uncertainty. This uncertainty quantification was applied to modal tests designed to assess modeling capabilities for emerging designs of wind turbine blades. In an example, we show that unit-to-unit variation of the modal parameters of two nominally identical wind turbine blades is successfully assessed by performing uncertainty quantification. This study aims to demonstrate the importance of the proper pre-test design and analysis for understanding the uncertainty in modal parameters, in particular uncertainty due to bias error.

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Signal and power harnesses on spacecraft buses and payloads can alter structural dynamics, as has been noted in previous flight programs. The community, however, has never undertaken a thorough study to understand the impact of harness dynamics on spacecraft structures. The Air Force Research Laboratory is leading a test and analysis program to develop fundamental knowledge of how spacecraft harnesses impact dynamics and develop tools that structural designers could use to achieve accurate predictions of cable-dressed structures. The work described in this paper involved a beam under simulated free boundary conditions that served as a validation test bed for model development.

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A technique published in SAND Report 2006-1789 ''Model Reduction of Systems with Localized Nonlinearities'' is illustrated in two problems of finite element structural dynamics. That technique, called here the Method of Locally Discontinuous Basis Vectors (LDBV), was devised to address the peculiar difficulties of model reduction of systems having spatially localized nonlinearities. It's illustration here is on two problems of different geometric and dynamic complexity, but each containing localized interface nonlinearities represented by constitutive models for bolted joint behavior. As illustrated on simple problems in the earlier SAND report, the LDBV Method not only affords reduction in size of the nonlinear systems of equations that must be solved, but it also facilitates the use of much larger time steps on problems of joint macro-slip than would be possible otherwise. These benefits are more dramatic for the larger problems illustrated here. The work of both the original SAND report and this one were funded by the LDRD program at Sandia National Laboratories.

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This test report covers the SNL modal test results for two nominally identical TX-100 wind turbine blades. The TX-100 blade design is unique in that it features a passive braking, force-shedding mechanism where bending and torsion are coupled to produce desirable aerodynamic characteristics. A specific aim of this test is to characterize the coupling between bending and torsional dynamics. The results of the modal tests and the subsequent analysis characterize the natural frequencies, damping, and mode shapes of the individual blades. The results of this report are expected to be used for model validation--the frequencies and mode shapes from the experimental analysis can be compared with those of a finite-element analysis. Damping values are included in the results of these tests to potentially improve the fidelity of numerical simulations, although numerical finite element models typically have no means of predicting structural damping characteristics. Thereafter, an additional objective of the test is achieved in evaluating the test to test and unit variation in the modal parameters of the two blades.

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