Viscous and Aeroelastic Effects on Wind Turbine Blades. The VISCEL Project. Part II: Aeroelastic Stability Investigations

The recent introduction of ever larger wind turbines poses new challenges with regard to understanding the mechanisms of unsteady flow–structure interaction. An important aspect of the problem is the aeroelastic stability of the wind turbine blades, especially in the case of combined flap/lead–lag vibrations in the stall regime. Given the limited experimental information available in this field, the use of CFD techniques and state-of-the-art viscous flow solvers provides an invaluable alternative towards the identification of the underlying physics and the development and validation of sound engineering-type aeroelastic models. Navier–Stokes-based aeroelastic stability analysis of individual blade sections subjected to combined pitch/flap or flap/lead–lag motion has been attempted by the present consortium in the framework of the concluded VISCEL JOR3-CT98-0208 Joule III project. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.