Objective THE CREATION OF A WIND TURBINE DESIGN AS AN ENGINEERING TOOL THAT AIMS AT DESKTOP COMPUTERS IMPOSES NEW CONCEPTS ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY OF THE THEORETICAL TOOLS THAT ARE TO BE USED, AS FLEXIBILITY, SPEED, USERFRIENDLINESS AS WELL AS RELIABILITY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THE FINAL PRODUCT. Fundamentals of a developed aerodynamic theory have been studied for the design and performance prediction of horizontal axis wind generators of small and medium size. Aerodynamic phenomena such as the correction of tip losses, brake state corrections, wind sheer, tower shadow, dynamic stall, turbulence effects, discrete gusts, extreme wind speed, fatigue gust, and extreme amplitude and gradient gusts have been incorporated into the developed numerical model. The reliability of the developed numerical code has been tested against available experimental data. The developed software can be safely used by designers of horizontal axis wind generators. It runs on a microcomputer and has been developed in a user friendly mode.AS REGARDS THE AERODYNAMICS OF THE HAWT, THE USE OF BLADE ELEMENT THEORY IN CONJUNCTION WITH A SEMI-EMPIRICAL MODEL FOR UNSTEADY AERODYNAMICS SEEMS TO BE A SATISFACTORY CHOICE. MORE COMPLEX PRACTICES SUCH AS THE USE OF THE UNSTEADY NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS FOR SIMULATION OF THE DYNAMIC STALL PHENOMENON ON THE TURBINE ARE UNREALISTIC SUGGESTIONS FOR THE NEEDS DESCRIBED ABOVE. IN THE PRESENT WORK A TIME DELAY MODEL, THE ONE PROPOSED BY WESTLAND IS USED. THE MODEL RESPONDS TO THE DETERMINISTIC AND STOCHASTIC CHANGES OF THE WIND SPEED, WIND SHEAR AND YAW MISALIGNMENT. SPECIAL CARE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE RESPONSE TO DISCRETE GUSTS AND TO THE ESTIMATION OF THE MAXIMUM AERODYNAMIC LOADS. TURBULENCE IS SIMULATED IN THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL FIELD OF TURBULENT WIND SPEED ACCORDING TO THE "SANDIA" METHOD. THE APPLICATION OF THE METHOD REFERS TO EXPERIMENTALLY TESTED FREE-MARKET WIND TURBINES SO THAT AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RELIABILITY OF THE METHOD IS ACHIEVED, ALTHOUGH MORE TESTING AND IMPROVEMENT OF THE CODE ARE NEEDED. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwareengineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energywind powerengineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaeronautical engineering Programme(s) FP1-ENNONUC 3C - Research and development programme (EEC) in the field of Non-Nuclear Energy, 1985-1988 Topic(s) Data not available Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS EU contribution No data Address Iroon Polytechnioy 5 15780 ATHENS Greece See on map Total cost No data
