Torsional Performance of Wind Turbine Blades: Part I: Experimental Investigation

The complete 3D static responses of two different eight meter long wind turbine blade sections were tested. To experimentally investigate the 3D response, an advanced 3D digital optical deformation measuring system (ARAMIS 2M and 4M) was applied in this work. This system measures the full-field displacements (ux, uy and uz) of the blade surface. A least squares algorithm was developed, which fits a plane through each deformed cross section, and defines a single set of displacements and rotations (three displacements and rotations) per cross section. This least squares algorithm was also used to accommodate problems with a flexible boundary condition by determining the displacements and rotations for a cross section near the boundary. These displacements and rotations are subtracted from all other cross sections along the blade and thereby making the blade section fully fixed at the chosen cross section near the boundary.