Design A deflection simulation with chosen material and thickness
For this engineering project, our job consisted of designing a wind turbine blade for a wind farm on Wolfe Island to generate electricity for the large population of Kingston, Ontario. As a result of the wind farm's location, our design needed to be durable as it must withstand high wind speeds, and extreme weather conditions and minimize inertia efficiently and effectively. Given the scale of this project, we also additionally thought of how to make it cost-efficient and long-lasting to better suit a large population.
To minimize stress and maximize output, the blade must limit its deflection. By limiting deflection, the blades will not incur as much stress and deformation from oscillation and will additionally aid in the opposition of inertia. With an assigned constraint of maximum deflection of less than 10 mm, my team and I determined the corresponding blade thickness using a provided CAD model in Autodesk Inventor. Based on the properties of our selected material, CFRP, we concluded through stress analysis simulations that a blade thickness of 54 mm achieves a maximum deflection of 9.892mm. The analytical calculation of this blade thickness can be determined with the equations of max deflection and second moment of area for the given wind turbine shape. These equations account for the geometric properties (length, width, height, thickness) of the wind turbine concerning the incurred load (wind pressure) and physical properties (Young’s modulus).