5MW Reference Turbine FE Model

Hi Everyone,

I couldn’t find anything on this anywhere else, so I thought I’d ask here. Does anyone know of a finite element input file of the NREL 5MW reference turbine blade? I’ve just developed a spreadsheet that when given the external geometry and location of shear webs on a blade cross section can use Excel solver to design a composite lay-up that matches the mass/m and flapwise and edgewise bending stiffness to given values. Although the spreadsheet is a lot quicker than trial and error it’s still quite time consuming to make an FE model so if I’ll be going over old ground then I won’t bother! However, if it sounds like it will be of use to a few people then it could be time well spent.

Also, the spreadsheet is unsurprisingly a bit dependent on the location of shear webs and the like, so if anyone has any rough ideas on what the internal architecture of the blade looks like or could point me in the direction of that sort of information it would be helpful. If the extreme loads are available then they could be useful as well, as I’m not familiar with FAST and I’ve only got a few days to spend on it. This would let me make the model realistic in terms of buckling as the core thickness does not greatly influence the section properties.

The model would be created in ABAQUS but I believe it’s possible to translate that into other formats.

Pete

Dear Pete,

For an answer to your question, please see Brian Resor’s post in the forum topic found here: Structural design of the wind turbine blade.

Best regards,