Wind turbine blade simulations under changing environment for benchmarking SHM algorithms

This data set contains the flapwise vibration response simulation of a wind turbine blade under Environmental and Operational Variability (EOV) as well as increasing damage. The blade’s dynamics are represented by means of a 4 element FEM of a cantilever beam, while dynamic loading corresponds to a discretized turbulent wind field calculated with the help of the software TurbSim for prescribed 10-minute average wind speed and turbulence. Rotation effects are ignored. The wind loading is coupled with the structural dynamics considering aeroelastic interactions, based on lift and drag forces calculated from a NACA 64-618 airfoil. Ambient temperature (10-minute average) is used to set the elasticity (Young’s) modulus of the blade material.

While on the healthy state, the vibration response of the blade is simulated over a year of temperature and wind speed variations according to the average values measured in an area of north-central Switzerland. In addition, a week of extreme weather (abnormally high temperature in summer) and a month where the blade is subject to increasing damage are also simulated. Damage is represented as a decrement of the stiffness on a single FEM element located on the blade’s root. Damage increments linearly from 0 to 25% decrease of the total stiffness during a period of two weeks, while on the remaining two weeks a 25% stiffness decrement is sustained.

The main aim of this data set is to be used as a benchmark of vibration based SHM methods, particularly on damage detection and localization under EOV. To this end, both the blade’s vibration response and the environmental and operational parameters (temperature and wind) used to simulate each response are provided. Further details can be found in the publication attached.