WTG PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION

The WindFlow Engineering experts specialize in wind turbine optimization - tailored for specific needs and markets. We constantly strive to improve the competitiveness of our customers' products. By applying advanced control tuning know-how and optimization software development, we are able to reduce loads and/or improve energy production and hereby reduce the Cost of Energy.

Optimization problems come in various forms and shapes. It can be as simple as controller parameter tuning to maximize Annual Energy Production or as advanced as multi-goal optimization of a farm layout or tower selection. Wind turbine design on its own consists of a set of design decision processes, each susceptible to some optimization. For instance, is often of essence to conduct one blade design iteration swiftly, preferably within 24h, such that the next iteration can start as soon as possible. And each iteration would typically consist of thousands of load cases, and multiple analyses to be conducted on the obtained results. It is clear that optimization aimed at helping an engineer make an accurate decision in a short time is beneficial to streamline the design process and accelerate it, e.g. by removing focus from unimportant steps or creating a streamlined toolbox. The WindFlow Engineering experts can help you do both.

Optimization problem typically consists of objectives to achieve, choice of design variables, choice of fidelity of analysis, and choice of the optimization method. It is the industry standard to employ aeroelastic methods, where beam elements are combined with BEM solver. Also, design variables and objectives are usually predefined and depend on the platform development stage. On the other hand, the selection of optimization strategies is wide. Simple methodology like direct-search may be employed when rapid code development and limited time to first meaningful result is of the essence. However, faster convergence rates may be obtained with more sophisticated methods. This comes with the cost of longer tool development time but is beneficial from the perspective of single problem solution time.