Poster Session 6, 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM: Campus Center Auditorium [A63]

Presenter: Rebecca Ciaffi

Faculty Sponsor: Matthew Lackner

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Mechanical Engineering

ABSTRACT

Offshore wind turbines face harsh environmental conditions from waves and wind, which can decrease efficiency and cause damage or failure. Methods of structural control can be used to help mitigate this, such as tuned mass dampers (TMDs) which absorb and dissipate energy from the main structure, effectively decreasing excess motion. While much research has been conducted on turbine tower dampers, less research has explored structural control in turbine blades. A circular liquid column damper (CLCD) is a proposed design meant to damp blade vibrations in the edgewise direction (in-plane). The damper consists of a circular tube filled with a specified amount of liquid that can oscillate inside the tube. The unconventional design is more compatible with the rotating reference frame in which the blades operate, unlike many TMDs that are meant for more simple or linear motion. The CLCD design has been developed and simulated, but only theoretically. This research builds upon previous CLCD work by first recreating the theoretical model and running code to find optimal damper design parameters. This project aims to go further than a simulated model, and create a physical prototype of the proposed CLCD design, using parameters found during the optimization process. The prototype will also be tested through simulations that mimic vibrations experienced by turbine blades. The results are expected to roughly match previous simulations, and prove that the CLCD design would effectively damp edgewise blade vibrations. This development would help improve the overall performance and lifetime of offshore wind turbines.