Finite Element Structural Analysis of Commonly Used Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Airfoils of Various Geometries

Horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) are the dominating technology in large scale energy production utilizing the wind power. With these structures, HAWTs continually becoming more massive in size to produce the most energy possible, greater stresses are imposed on the blades of these turbines. The purpose of this study was to analyze the stresses and deformation imposed on the blades of commonly used airfoils under varying materials and blade arrangements of HAWTs. This structural analysis was performed by the use of ANSYS Workbench software. The pressures applied to the blades were determined by previous studies which used ANSYS Fluent for blade pressure analysis created under varying wind speeds. Use of the airfoil designs denoted as S811, S822, and S826 were implemented, with structural analysis performed solely on the blade, on three and five blades arrangements. The materials used for each of these setups were Aluminum Alloy and Structural Steel. Furthermore, varying mesh types within ANSYS were applied to each of the geometries for comparison. It has been found from this study that the S811 profile models had the lowest stress and deformation for both blade configurations, meshing methods, and materials.