Aeromechanical Analysis of Two-Bladed Downwind Turbine Using a Nacelle Tilt Control

The structural dynamics and response of a two-bladed downwind wind turbine using a new nacelle tilt control are numerically investigated based on a coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics and Computational Structural Dynamics analysis. The new wind turbine tilt control method is investigated to regulate the power output under a varying wind speed environment for offshore wind turbines. The high fidelity aerodynamic loads obtained from CFD computations are used as input in a CSD code to perform a structural dynamics analysis in order to predict the system response and structural deformation of the two-bladed downwind turbine. The coupled CFD and CSD analysis provide high fidelity assessments of the aeromechanical performance with increased accuracy to evaluate the new nacelle tilt control concept, which may lead to an alternative wind turbine control strategy with reduced costs for offshore wind turbine operations.