OPTIMAL DESIGN AND STRESS/STRAIN ANALYSIS OF WIND TURBINE BLADE FOR OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE IN ENERGY GENERATION VIA SIMULATION APPROACH

Abstract

The blade is a significant part of a wind turbine, due to its role in the conversion process of the wind energy into mechanical energy. The blade during operation is being acted upon by different forces and pressures on high humidity, which gives rise to a high rate of failure of the blade. There is a great need to study these forces and constraints on the design shape of the material blade via a simulation approach. This research focusses on the optimal design and stress/strain analysis of a wind turbine blade for sustainable power generation. This is to enable the manufacturer and end-users of the wind turbine blade to understand how the blade material withstand the forces and pressures acting on the blade during operation in the form of displacement, stress, and strain in high humidity. The design and simulation software employed in this study is Solid Works Visualize 2018. The wind turbine blade is made of AL6061 alloy material. The blade is simulated under two forces, 1 N and 5 N, with the pressure at zero degree. The result from this analysis shows the maximum stress that causes the blade to experience failure during operation, and this failure occurs at 285.377 N/m^2 and 1426.83 N/m^2, respectively. The result from the simulation analysis shows the specific area were the deformation process, and possible failure will occur on the blades. This paper also gives reasonable suggestion for reinforcement of the wind blade during the maintainer's section, which can be applied to achieve optimum performance of the wind turbine blade