A stochastic aerodynamic model for stationary blades in unsteady 3D wind fields

Dynamic loads play an important roll in the design of wind turbines, but establishing the life-time aerodynamic loads (e.g. extreme and fatigue loads) is a computationally expensive task. Conventional (deterministic) methods to analyze long term loads, which rely on the repeated analysis of multiple different wind samples, are usually too expensive to be included in optimization routines. We present a new stochastic approach, which solves the aerodynamic system equations (Lagrangian vortex model) in the stochastic space, and thus arrive directly at a stochastic description of the coupled loads along a turbine blade. This new approach removes the requirement of analyzing multiple different realizations. Instead, long term loads can be extracted from a single stochastic solution, a procedure that is obviously significantly faster. Despite the reduced analysis time, results obtained from the stochastic approach match deterministic result well for a simple test-case (a stationary blade). In future work, the stochastic method will be extended to rotating blades, thus opening up new avenues to include long term loads into turbine optimization.