Load And Performance Analysis On Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Based On FAST

As we all know that wind is a kind of resource. As the main equipment of obtaining wind energy, the wind turbine’s stability and security should be discussed and highlighted. The wind turbine has two basic types, one is onshore which is fixed with the ground and the other is offshore which is fixed with seabed or floating with a certain-type platform. For the onshore type, the main load is from the air while for the offshore one, wave load and mooring line effect should not be neglected. In 2002, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL) developed a code called FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence),which can be used to simulate the performance of the wind turbine with two or three blades,both onshore and offshore. And after more than 10 years’ development, the reliability of this code has been calibrated by many scholars and experts from all over the world.Two models are chosen to analysis the performance of the onshore wind turbine and the offshore one separately based on FAST code. One is named AOC-15/50 and the other is the NREL5MW wind turbine with a SPAR-type platform.Some current research situation is introduced at the very beginning about the aerodynamic load, wind turbine and FAST. And then theories that will be used in this paper is presented. In the chapter 4, concept pictures and parameters of the two models are given for subsequent research. For the onshore wind turbine, the differences of the load at the turbine blade root and the power of the rotor under different wind situations, yaw angles and pitches are discussed. And for the offshore one, influence of the wave load on the turbine performance is mainly discussed and some issues that should be highlighted of the platform motion and the mooring system are mentioned.FAST code is used in this paper to simulate the whole turbine system, from the bottom of the rotor to the bottom of the mooring system. Although some imperfection exists, this paper can be a reference for those who want to use the FAST code for the research on the wind turbine.