Question Regarding NREL Phase VI FAST Model

Wind & Water Structural Analysis
8

Dear Pravin,

There are multiple ways to pass data from FAST to an FEA tool for stress/strain recovery. For example:

  • You can directly pass the sectional reaction loads (Spn1MLxb1 etc. from ElastoDyn) to a 2D sectional-analysis FEA tool such as VABS.
  • You can take the aerodynamic applied loads (ForcN etc. from AeroDyn v14) and apply them to a 3D FEA tool such as ANSYS, but then you’ll probably want to model spinning blade dynamics in your FEA tool.
  • You can take the sectional reaction loads (Spn1MLxb1 etc. from ElastoDyn) and derive equivalent applied loads to be applied to a 3D FEA tool such as ANSYS that result in the same reaction loads at each cross section of interest (via a static analysis).

I hope that helps.

Best regards,