Along-wind simplified analysis of wind turbines through a coupled blade-tower model

A model is proposed to analyse the along-wind dynamic response of upwind turbines with horizontal axis under service wind conditions. The model takes into account the dynamic coupling effect between rotor blades and supporting tower. The wind speed field is decomposed into a mean component, accounting for the well-known wind shear effect, and a fluctuating component, treated through a spectral approach. Accordingly, the so-called rotationally sampled spectra are introduced for the blades to account for the effect of their rotating motion. Wind forces acting on the rotor blades are calculated according to the blade element momentum model. The tower shadow effect is also included in the present model. Two examples of a large and medium size wind turbines are modelled, and their dynamic response is analysed and compared with the results of a conventional static analysis.