Design of small wind turbine structure with optimized response in frequency domain

Abstract Chapter presents an approach to design of a structure of a small wind turbine with respect to control its response in the frequency domain. The goal of design process is to develop low-cost, simple structure with resonant frequencies outside the range of service condition. After generation of preliminary design of small wind turbine, its scaled prototype was built. Resonant frequencies of the scaled model were measured. Also, finite element (FE) model of the scaled prototype was developed and resonant frequencies were calculated. Measured and numerically calculated eigenvalues were compared to check quality of the FE model. Once correlation between experiment and calculation was achieved an FE model of the full-scale wind turbine was built. Optimization procedure was utilized to create optimal structure of turbine in terms of cost and resonant frequencies distribution. Comparison of resonant frequencies of preliminary design and optimized turbine shows that it was possible to control eigenvalues and shift resonant frequencies outside of working range of the turbine.