Modelling and analysis of aeroelastic tailoring blade wind turbine systems

Modelling and performance analysis of wind turbine control systems with aeroelastic tailoring blades (ATBs) are investigated. An industrial scale horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) model with rigid blades is firstly developed as the baseline model using the blade element momentum (BEM) theory. Designed twist angle variation distributions along blades are then introduced to the baseline model to characterise the ATB nature. The developed ATB wind turbine models are analysed by employing a baseline control system. The performances of the ATB wind turbine systems are compared with that of the baseline turbine using both nonlinear models and linearised models at selected wind speeds. The impacts of ATB design can be clearly observed from the simulation studies. Preliminary results suggest that with ATB design in wind turbines, the blade fatigue loads and the pitching activities can be reduced for large turbines without compromising the energy capture performance.