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METU uses AnalySwift's VABS for composite wind turbine

15 Jul '16

2 min read

AnalySwift, LLC, a provider of efficient high-fidelity modelling software for composites and other advanced materials, has announced that Middle East Technical University (METU) is leveraging its powerful VABS software to accelerate design of composite wind turbine and helicopter rotor blades.

METU has used VABS for a variety of projects in its Department of Aerospace Engineering and Centre for Wind Energy (METUWind), where it has aided in the accurate, yet rapid design of complex composite blades.

Researchers at METU have used VABS recently in multiple studies; including an evaluation of aeroelastic stability of bend-twist coupled composite wind turbine blades designed for load alleviation in wind turbine systems. It was also used in a comparative study of finite element analysis and geometrically exact beam analysis of a composite helicopter blade, as well as project related to the reduction of fatigue damage equivalent loads in the wind turbine system through the use of off-axis plies in the spar caps of composite wind turbine blades.

Altan Kayran, deputy director of METUWind and professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering said, “We investigate the effect of fibre angle of the off-axis spar cap plies of composite blades on the load reduction that is achieved in the wind turbine system. We are using VABS to determine the cross-sectional properties of several GFRP and hybrid GFRP-CFRP bend-twist coupled blade designs that we have performed.”

Allan Wood, president and CEO of AnalySwift said, “The VABS program is a uniquely powerful tool for modelling composite blades and other slender structures, commonly called beams. VABS reduces analysis time from hours to seconds by quickly and easily achieving the accuracy of detailed 3D FEA with the efficiency of simple engineering models.” (GK)

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