Self-induced vibrations of a DU96-W-180 airfoil in stall

This work presents an analysis of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) non-moving, prescribed motion and elastically mounted airfoil computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computations. The elastically mounted airfoil computations were performed by means of a 2D structural model with two degrees of freedom. The computations aimed at investigating the mechanisms of both vortex-induced and stall-induced vibrations related to a wind turbine blade at standstill conditions. In this work, a DU96-W-180 airfoil was used in the angle-of-attack region potentially corresponding to stallinduced vibrations. The analysis showed significant differences between the aerodynamic stability limits predicted by 2D and 3D CFD computations. A general agreement was reached between the prescribed motion and elastically mounted airfoil computations. 3D computations indicated that vortex-induced vibrations are likely to occur at modern wind turbine blades at standstill. In contrast, the predicted cut-in wind speed necessary for the onset of stall-induced vibrations appeared high enough for such vibrations to be unlikely. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.