Structural analysis of wind turbine inner core based on local wind conditions

Abstract eng:
Naturally when air passes through the wind turbine, the air flow is purely non-homogenous, unsteady and also turbulent. The wind speed is critical in the design of wind turbine blade and its support structures. The function of the inner core is to support the rotor blade for to prevent unwarranted deflection and to lower the vibration of the rotor blade. The inner core beam must be designed to be stiffer and must have moderate weight to allow smooth operation. In this paper, four main shapes were considered, namely: Rectangular shape, I-beam shape, Circular shape and finally the “Egg” shaped beam. Materials to be selected from are: Structural steel, Stainless steel 304, Aluminium 2014-T6, Aluminium 6061-T6, aluminium 7071-T6, Aluminium/Silicon Carbide and the Cast Iron. Rectangular beam shape was chosen because it allowed for small tip deflection and has low weight. Structural steel was also selected as the best material when it comes to the deflection resistance. The overall cross section dimension of the beam/ inner core used is 110 × 260 mm with the thickness of 34 mm. The maximum or tip deflection was found to be approximately 34 mm. Fatigue analysis on the structural steel rectangular beam was also performed. Fatigue analysis was performed due to the fact that when the rotor blades rotate, they experience loads variation due to change of wind velocity. It is found that the maximum applied normal stress due to maximum wind velocity did not exceed the endurance limit of the material. Therefore it was concluded that the beam has infinite life as shown on Goodman diagram.

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