Modal Analysis of Vertical Wind Turbine Blade

Lee, Zhou Yi (2018) Modal Analysis of Vertical Wind Turbine Blade. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

As rising concern on environment has led to the. search for more environmental friendly. source of energy. Wind energy can. alternative option in. this. regard. However, common wind turbine. cannot be simply installed in Malaysia due to low wind speed condition. The research work on vertical axis wind turbine is less because it cannot be used for. large. scale electricity generation. However, vertical axis wind turbine is. suitable for low wind speed condition. Hence, the purpose of this project is to analyze the redesign of existing vertical axis wind turbine and applied in Malaysia. The. configurations. of the blades are very important, to design an. efficient wind turbine. Modal analysis is. crucial in the engineering. design process as it can be used for analyzing the modal properties of the blade structure. The project has analyzed the existing wind turbine blade (Aeolos-V 1k) design based modal properties using. computational approach (ANSYS Workbench). The modal analysis has simulated to observe natural. frequency and. corresponding. mode shaped of the system under free vibration. The flow induced vibration can cause blade failure due to. resonance or. fatigue. As wind flow over the blade, the aerodynamic deformation. can create wind. induced vibration on the blade. Fluid. Structural. Interaction (FSI) ANSYS is used to the determined the interaction between the wind flow and the blade. Harmonic Response ANSYS is used to analyze the frequency. response of the blade under wind. induced vibration. The first. mode of frequency response is the. most. critical mode because it vibrates in flap-wise direction. and has maximum. deformation under operating frequency. Other mode such as edge-wise and complex mode are less critical. The Aeolos-V’s blade has been modified by using. teak wood material and. redesign the blade for weight. reduction and aim for lower blade cost. The weight of modified blade has reduced 72.8 % after using teak wood and the efficiency of the wind turbine also increased. Teak wood has yield stress of 10.3 MPa and the maximum stress on the modified blade obtain during force vibration is 4.2 MPa. This gives safety factor of 2.4 which is safe to apply under Malaysia maximum wind speed. Besides that, teak wood is highly available in Malaysia with lower material cost. The modified design has been tested under Malaysia maximum wind speed of 9.44 m/s, the yield stress of teak wood is higher than the maximum stress obtained under force vibration. Hence, the modified blade is reliable and more economic for Malaysia.