A Computational Method for Aerodynamic, Structural, and Fatigue Modeling of a 5 MW Wind Turbine Blade Using Supercomputer Fugaku

The objective of this work is to develop a one-way partitioned coupling computational method to account for aerodynamic effects, dynamic structural deformation, and fatigue damage of a 5[Formula: see text]MW wind turbine blade. We accurately reproduce a wind flow field using a large eddy simulation (LES)-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach with a rotating high-fidelity wind turbine model. A high-fidelity finite element structural model of the blade is also constructed, where laminated composite solid elements are used for mesh discretization. A dynamic finite element method is employed for blade deformation analysis. The aerodynamic loading history calculated by the LES analysis is applied onto the blade surface as a loading boundary condition of the dynamic structural analysis via a one-way partitioned fluid–structure interaction (FSI) method. A fatigue damage distribution of the whole blade structure is finally estimated using an engineering fatigue life model with the help of stress history information outputted from the structural analysis. Based on the developed method, a high-performance computational system that combines a parallel finite element LES code named FrontFlow/Blue (FFB), a parallel data coupling tool named REVOCAP_Coupler, a parallel structural analysis code named ADVENTURE_Solid, and a fatigue evaluation tool named ADVENTURE_Fatigue is established on a latest high-performance computing environment (i.e., Supercomputer Fugaku). The effectiveness and accuracy of the computational system are first validated in terms of aerodynamic results and dynamic behaviors of the blade model. Finally, some parametric studies are performed to investigate the effects of gravitational and centrifugal forces, shear of atmospheric boundary layer, and tip speed ratios on structural behaviors and fatigue damages of the 5[Formula: see text]MW turbine blade.