Swept Blade Dynamic Investigations for a 100 kW Small Wind Turbine

Most small–medium-sized turbine studies have focused on presenting new design methods and corresponding performance improvements rather than detailed dynamic investigations. This paper presents comprehensive dynamic investigations of a straight and a swept-back blade for a 100 kW turbine by performing modal analysis, dynamic load analysis, and flutter analysis. The considered load cases include steady wind and operational conditions under normal and extreme turbulence. Modal results show that although both blades have similar natural frequencies, their mode shapes are quite different due to the couplings in flapwise-torsion directions introduced by the back-swept geometry. This coupling alters the aeroelastic response of the blade, which results in different loads in the operational conditions. The load analysis results show that the blade damage equivalent fatigue loads for the swept blade are much lower (up to 29% for the flapwise bending moment and 31% for the edgewise bending moment) than the straight blade. For the ultimate loads, blade root edgewise load for the swept blade is almost 50% lower than the straight blade while the flapwise ultimate load is similar for both blades. Moreover, both blades have no aeroelastic instability near the operational conditions, and the flutter limit for the swept-back blade is lower than the straight blade.