Predicting extreme loads effects on wind turbines considering uncertainty in airfoil data

The sources contributing to uncertainty in a wind turbine blade static airfoil data include wind tunnel testing, CFD calculations, 3D rotational corrections based on CFD or empirical models, surface roughness corrections, Reynolds number corrections, expansion to the full 360-degree angle of attack range, validation by full scale measurements, and geometric distortions of the blade during manufacturing and under loading.

In this paper a stochastic model of the static airfoil data is proposed to supplement the prediction of extreme loads effects for large wind turbines. It is shown that the uncertainty in airfoil data can have a significant impact on the prediction of extreme loads effects depending on the component, and the correlation along the span of the blade.