Wind Turbine Dynamic Modeling with Experimental Validation

Los Alamos National Laboratory Engineering, 2010-11

Liaison(s): Curtt Ammerman
Advisor(s): Philip Cha
Students(s): Visar Jahiu, Jennifer Rinker (TL-F), Allison Russell (TL-S), Harry Wornick, Nikki Peck (S), Lowell Reade (F)

In an effort to understand why wind turbines fail prematurely, researchers at LANL have been investigating methods of creating wind turbine models that better predict their actual behavior. The HMC team was asked to create a dynamic, multibody model of a 3 kW residential scale wind turbine and to validate and refine the model through experimental testing.