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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 433 records · Page 24
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Simulation-Length Requirements in the Loads Analysis of Offshore Floating Wind Turbines: Preprint

The goal of this paper is to examine the appropriate length of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) simulation - a fundamental question that needs to be answered to develop design requirements. To examine this issue, a loads analysis of an example FOWT was performed in FAST with varying simulation lengths. The offshore wind system used was the OC3-Hywind spar buoy, which was developed for use in the International Energy Agency Code Comparison Collaborative Project and supports NREL's offshore 5-megawatt baseline turbine. Realistic metocean data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and repeated periodic wind files were used to excite the structure. The results of the analysis clearly show that loads do not increase for longer simulations. In regards to fatigue, a sensitivity analysis shows that the procedure used for counting half cycles is more important than the simulation length itself. Based on these results, neither the simulation length nor the periodic wind files affect response statistics and loads for FOWTs (at least for the spar studied here); a result in contrast to the offshore oil and gas industry, where running simulations of at least 3 hours in length is common practice.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Augmented Kalman filter with a reduced mechanical model to estimate tower loads on a land-based wind turbine: a step towards digital-twin simulations

This article presents an application of the Kalman filtering technique to estimate loads on a wind turbine. The approach combines a mechanical model and a set of measurements to estimate signals that are not available in the measurements, such as wind speed, thrust, tower position, and tower loads. The model is severalfold faster than real time and is intended to be run online, for instance, to evaluate real-time fatigue life consumption of a field turbine using a digital twin, perform condition monitoring, or assess loads for dedicated control strategies. The mechanical model is built using a Rayleigh–Ritz approach and a set of joint coordinates. We present a general method and illustrate it using a 2-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) model of a wind turbine and using rotor speed, generator torque, pitch, and tower-top acceleration as measurement signals. The different components of the model are tested individually. The overall method is evaluated by computing the errors in estimated tower-bottom-equivalent moment from a set of simulations. From this preliminary study, it appears that the tower-bottom-equivalent moment is obtained with about 10 % accuracy. The limitation of the model and the required steps forward are discussed.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Instantaneous mesh load factor ( K γ ) measurements in a wind turbine gearbox using fiber-optic strain sensors

The mesh load factor, K γ , describes how loads are shared between planet gears and has become one of the key design challenges in modern wind turbine gearboxes. Planet load sharing directly impacts tooth root stresses, a critical driver of torque density and gearbox reliability. Experimental evaluation of K γ is typically performed from sun gear tooth root strain gauge measurements, which are complex. Furthermore, such measurements can only provide an average value of load sharing. The present study describes an alternative method to evaluate the mesh load factor in wind turbine gearboxes based on fiber-optic strain sensors installed on the outer surface of the fixed ring gear. We present the results of an extensive measurement campaign to evaluate this novel sensing solution installed on the input planetary stage of a 2-MW wind turbine gearbox at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Flatirons Campus (Colorado, USA). The number of strain sensors on the ring gear was selected as an integer multiple of the number of planets, which has enabled an instantaneous evaluation of the mesh load factor. The effect of operating conditions on the planet load-sharing behavior of the gearbox has been investigated. The mesh load factor measured for operating conditions close to rated was below 1.05, well below IEC 61400-4 standard requirements.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2011

Computational mechanics research and support for aerodynamics and hydraulics at TFHRC, year 1 quarter 3 progress report.

The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural mechanics (CSM) focus areas at Argonne's Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center (TRACC) initiated a project to support and compliment the experimental programs at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) with high performance computing based analysis capabilities in August 2010. The project was established with a new interagency agreement between the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation to provide collaborative research, development, and benchmarking of advanced three-dimensional computational mechanics analysis methods to the aerodynamics and hydraulics laboratories at TFHRC for a period of five years, beginning in October 2010. The analysis methods employ well-benchmarked and supported commercial computational mechanics software. Computational mechanics encompasses the areas of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Wind Engineering (CWE), Computational Structural Mechanics (CSM), and Computational Multiphysics Mechanics (CMM) applied in Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problems. The major areas of focus of the project are wind and water loads on bridges - superstructure, deck, cables, and substructure (including soil), primarily during storms and flood events - and the risks that these loads pose to structural failure. For flood events at bridges, another major focus of the work is assessment of the risk to bridges caused by scour of stream and riverbed material away from the foundations of a bridge. Other areas of current research include modeling of flow through culverts to assess them for fish passage, modeling of the salt spray transport into bridge girders to address suitability of using weathering steel in bridges, vehicle stability under high wind loading, and the use of electromagnetic shock absorbers to improve vehicle stability under high wind conditions. This quarterly report documents technical progress on the project tasks for the period of April through June 2011.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Wind Turbine Rotor Design Optimization Using Importance Sampling: Preprint

Probabilistic methods are commonly adopted to estimate both ultimate and fatigue loads in wind turbines, and multiple papers have presented a variety of approaches. In contrast, system-level, integrated design optimization methods for wind turbines have so far relied on deterministic methods to estimate loads and deflections. This work aims at addressing this gap by adopting importance sampling to estimate ultimate blade deflection for use within a rotor design optimization. A comparison between the results of this approach against traditional approaches using deterministic load evaluations show that the probabilistic approach is more conservative and that the solutions found with deterministic approaches violate the probabilistic constraint on tip deflection between 13% and 17%. This highlights the importance of accurate load and deflection estimates and demonstrates that probabilistic approaches can be successfully integrated within a wind turbine design process despite the higher computational costs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Electric Grid Visualization: Hourly Renewable Generation, Load, Unserved Load, and Locational Marginal Prices during a Heatwave

Visualization of hourly solar and wind generation, load, unserved load, and locational marginal energy prices in the western United States during a July 22-28 heatwave event in 2018, 2058, and 2098. In addition to hourly time series data of each of the parameters, choropleth maps showing the hourly value for each balancing authority are provided.

Climate Change↗
NASA NTRS1994

MHD simulations of boundary layer formation along the dayside Venus ionopause due to mass loading

A two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of mass-loaded solar wind flow around the dayside of Venus is presented. For conditions appropriate to a low-altitude ionopause the simulations show that mass loading from the pickup of oxygen ions produces a boundary layer of finite thickness along the ionopause. Within this layer the temperatures exhibit strong gradients normal to and away from the ionopause. Furthermore, there is a shear in the bulk flow velocity across the boundary layer, such that the (predominantly tangential) flow decreases in speed as the ionopause is approached and remains small along the ionopause, consistent with Pioneer Venus observations. The total mass density increases significantly as the flow approaches the ionopause, where the contribution of O(+) to the total number density is a few percent. Numerical simulations are carried out for various mass addition rates and demonstrate that the boundary layer develops when oxygen ion production exceeds approximately 2 x 10(exp 5)/cu m/s. For the upstream solar wind parameters and mass loading rates chosen for these simulations, the results are consistent with observations made on the dayside of Venus for average ionopause conditions near 300 km.

Mcgary, J. E.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comparison of Second-Order Loads on a Semisubmersible Floating Wind Turbine: Preprint

As offshore wind projects move to deeper waters, floating platforms become the most feasible solution for supporting the turbines. The oil and gas industry has gained experience with floating platforms that can be applied to offshore wind projects. This paper focuses on the analysis of second-order wave loading on semisubmersible platforms. Semisubmersibles, which are being chosen for different floating offshore wind concepts, are particularly prone to slow-drift motions. The slack catenary moorings usually result in large natural periods for surge and sway motions (more than 100 s), which are in the range of the second-order difference-frequency excitation force. Modeling these complex structures requires coupled design codes. Codes have been developed that include turbine aerodynamics, hydrodynamic forces on the platform, restoring forces from the mooring lines, flexibility of the turbine, and the influence of the turbine control system. In this paper two different codes are employed: FAST, which was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and aNySIM, which was developed by the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands. The hydrodynamic loads are based on potential-flow theory, up to the second order. Hydrodynamic coefficients for wave excitation, radiation, and hydrostatic forces are obtained with two different panel codes, WAMIT (developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and DIFFRAC (developed by MARIN). The semisubmersible platform, developed for the International Energy Agency Wind Task 30 Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration Continuation project is used as a reference platform. Irregular waves are used to compare the behavior of this platform under slow-drift excitation loads. The results from this paper highlight the effects of these loads on semisubmersible-type platforms, which represent a promising solution for the commercial development of the offshore deepwater wind resource.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Validation of FAST.Farm Against Large-Eddy Simulations

FAST.Farm is a new midfidelity, multiphysics engineering tool for modeling the power performance and structural loads of wind turbines within a wind farm, including wake and array effects. Previous calibration of the tuneable model parameters of FAST.Farm has shown that its prediction of wake dynamics for a single wind turbine across different atmospheric stability conditions and nacelle-yaw errors matches well with high-fidelity large-eddy simulation at a small fraction of the computational expense. This paper presents a validation of FAST.Farm against large-eddy simulation for a series of cases - independent from those used to support the calibration - considering single-turbine and small wind-farm scenarios, which are both subject to variations in inflow and control. The validation has demonstrated that FAST.Farm reasonably accurately predicts: (1) thrust and power for individual turbines both in isolation and down the row of the small wind farm, (2) wake meandering behavior across different atmospheric conditions, and (3) averaged wake-deficit advection, evolution, and merging effects. As a result, the validation also highlights potential physics that could be improved in FAST.Farm in the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1974

Wind-tunnel investigation of aerodynamic load distribution on a variable-wing-sweep fighter airplane with a NASA supercritical airfoil

Wind-tunnel tests have been conducted at Mach numbers of 0.85, 0.88, and 0.90 to determine the aerodynamic load distribution for the 39 deg swept-wing configuration of a variable-wing-sweep fighter airplane with a NASA supercritical airfoil. Chordwise pressure distributions were measured at two wing stations. Also measured were the overall longitudinal aerodynamic force and moment characteristics and the buffet characteristics. The analysis indicates that localized regions of shock-induced flow separation may exist on the rearward portions of the supercritical wing at high subsonic speeds, and caution must be exercised in the prediction of buffet onset when using variations in trailing-edge pressure coefficients at isolated locations.

Hallissy, J. B.↗
DOE OSTI2018

Wind turbine rotor blades with load-transferring exterior panels

Rotor blades for a wind turbines include a structural support member disposed internal the rotor blade that extends for at least a portion of a rotor blade span length and an airfoil structure supported by the structural support member, the airfoil structure comprising a shell portion and at least one load-transferring exterior panel. The shell portion and the at least one load-transferring exterior panel combine to form an aerodynamic profile comprising a leading edge opposite a trailing edge and a pressure side opposite a suction side. Moreover, the shell portion and the at least one load-transferring exterior panel are independently connected to the structural support member.

Caruso, Christopher Daniel↗
DOE OSTI2017

Emissions implications of downscaled electricity generation scenarios for the western United States

This study explores how emissions from electricity generation in the Western Interconnection region of the U.S. might respond in circa 2030 to contrasting scenarios for fuel prices and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fees. We examine spatial and temporal variations in generation mix across the region and year using the PLEXOS unit commitment and dispatch model with a production cost model database adapted from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. Emissions estimates are computed by combining the dispatch model results with unit-specific, emissions-load relationships. Wind energy displaces natural gas and coal in scenarios with relatively expensive natural gas or with GHG fees. Correspondingly, annual emissions of NOx, SO2, and CO2 are reduced by 20-40% in these cases. NOx emissions, which are a concern as a precursor of ground-level ozone, are relatively high and consistent across scenarios during summer, when peak electricity loads occur and wind resources in the region are comparatively weak. Accounting for the difference in start-up versus stabilized NOx emissions rates for natural gas plants had little impact on region-wide emissions estimates due to the dominant contribution from coal-fired plants, but would be more important in the vicinity of the natural gas units.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Maturing Rational Design Methodologies and Industry Consensus Engineering Standards: Critical Fastened Joints - Solar PV Industry

Critical structural joints can be seen throughout a solar array and are called upon to secure modules and keep racking assembled and able to resist large demands from winds and snow loads. In the relatively new and fast-growing solar PV industry, the important role these hardware assemblies (e.g. clips, clamps, bolts, nuts, washers) play is not well understood by product designers. Failures with critical structural joints are surprisingly common and point to the need for maturing the engineering and assembly of these joints. The wide variety of design concepts (Figure 2&2) demonstrate interesting and innovative ideas but are lacking the basics of fastener engineering seen in matured industries (e.g. transportation, buildings). Complicating the maturing process for critical structural joints is that they are one component in rack supporting structures that exhibits a systems behavior; each component will affect the other and play a key role in maintaining structural integrity. When wind loads the surface of a module, the underlying racking members deflect and twist which in turn imparts forces back into the joints and into the mounted modules. Often, these supporting rack structures exhibit high deflections and low natural frequencies which amplify the demands placed into the joints even in moderate winds. Current engineering practices and associated structural conventions view solar racking support structures as they would a high mass building that exhibit more static behaviors in wind events. Solar structures are unique from high mass buildings and require the development of solar specific industry engineering consensus standards.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1980

The design of low cost structures for extensive ground arrays

The development of conceptual designs of solar array support structures and their foundations including considerations of the use of concrete, steel, aluminum, or timber are reported. Some cost trends were examined by varying selected parameters to determine optimum configurations. Detailed civil/structural design criteria were developed. Using these criteria, eight detailed designs for support structures and foundations were developed and cost estimates were made. As a result of the study wind was identified as the major loading experienced by these low height structures, whose arrays are likely to extend over large tracts of land. Proper wind load estimating is considered essential to developing realistic structural designs and achieving minimum cost support structures. Wind tunnel testing of a conceptual array field was undertaken and some of the resulting wind design criteria are presented. The SPS rectenna system designs may be less sensitive to wind load estimates, but consistent design criteria remain important.

Franklin, H. A.↗
DOE OSTI2017

Development of performance specifications for hybrid modeling of floating wind turbines in wave basin tests

Hybrid modeling—combining physical testing and numerical simulation in real time$-$opens new opportunities in floating wind turbine research. Wave basin testing is an important validation step for floating support structure design, but the conventional approaches that use physical wind above the basin are limited by scaling problems in the aerodynamics. Applying wind turbine loads with an actuation system that is controlled by a simulation responding to the basin test in real time offers a way to avoid scaling problems and reduce cost barriers for floating wind turbine design validation in realistic coupled wind and wave conditions. This paper demonstrates the development of performance specifications for a system that couples a wave basin experiment with a wind turbine simulation. Two different points for the hybrid coupling are considered: the tower-base interface and the aero-rotor interface (the boundary between aerodynamics and the rotor structure). Analyzing simulations of three floating wind turbine designs across seven load cases reveals the motion and force requirements of the coupling system. By simulating errors in the hybrid coupling system, the sensitivity of the floating wind turbine response to coupling quality can be quantified. The sensitivity results can then be used to determine tolerances for motion tracking errors, force actuation errors, bandwidth limitations, and latency in the hybrid coupling system. These tolerances can guide the design of hybrid coupling systems to achieve desired levels of accuracy. An example demonstrates how the developed methods can be used to generate performance specifications for a system at 1:50 scale. Results show that sensitivities vary significantly between support structure designs and that coupling at the aero-rotor interface has less stringent requirements than those for coupling at the tower base. As a result, the methods and results presented here can inform design of future hybrid coupling systems and enhance understanding of how test results are affected by hybrid coupling quality.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗