The battle against climate change begins with maximizing the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix, such that the cost of energy will be minimum. Wind energy will play a vital role in maximizing the share of renewables in the total energy mix. In order to reach the LCOE projection of 0.09 Euro/KWh a decrease in the material cost involved in the manufacturing of blades should play an important role. The drive to make wind energy cheaper pushed me to dive deeper into the subject of wind turbine aerodynamics and thus, I chose to work on this thesis project. The research will help the wind energy community to make the wind turbine design process robust, safe and cost-optimal. The thesis focuses on improving the general practice (based on the IEC standard) for wind turbine blade design by incorporating a more advanced aerodynamic model, called as the vortex wake model.
The objective of this thesis is to evaluate differences in BEM and vortex wake models for IEC load case calculation. With respect to these differences, the thesis also aims to recommend a practice for fast and more accurate results. Initially, the IEC load cases are simulated with the Focus6 software making use of BEM based model for aerodynamic load calculations. A selection of most relevant load cases is to be done on the basis of results for the load cases which violate the BEM model. Finally, the selected load cases are further simulated with a vortex wake model coupled to Focus6, and a recommended practice for more accurate and fast results is devised.