Aeroelastic analysis of a vertical axis wind turbine on the basis of a double multiple streamtube model

Abstract

An aeroelastic analysis method for vertical axis wind turbines based on the double multiple streamtube model has been developed using MATLAB Simulink/Simscape. In the multibody model of the new method, a blade was constructed by using only three elastic elements, i.e. upper, lower, and middle parts, instead of a number of equally-divided elastic elements adopted in the previous model to reduce the computational cost．In order to demonstrate the validity, the new method was applied to the aeroelastic analysis of a two-bladed H-Darrieus wind turbine. Turbulent inflow generated greater rotor torque, including fluctuation caused by structure displacements of the blade elements, than that in the constant wind speed case.