GALCIT Colloquium

In this talk, a collection of numerical methods, which are combined into a single framework for aerodynamic and fluid—structure interaction (FSI) modeling and simulation of wind turbines, is presented. The numerical formulation of the Navier—Stokes equations of incompressible flows is validated using experimental data for a full-scale wind turbine. The structural modeling of wind turbine blades makes use of the Kirchhoff—Love thin shell theory discretized with Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) based on Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS). The coupled FSI formulation accommodates non-matching fluid—structure interface discretizations. The challenges of fluid—structural coupling, and the handling of the computational mesh in the presence of large rotational motions are discussed, and the FSI computations of a 5MW offshore baseline wind turbine rotor are shown. Extensions of the current modeling and simulation methodology to the case of free surface flow and FSI, which are used for modeling of offshore wind turbines, are discussed, if time permits.