QBlade is a public source, cross-platform
simulation software
Simulation software is based on the process of modeling a real phenomenon with a set of mathematical formulas. It is, essentially, a program that allows the user to observe an operation through simulation without actually performing that operation. ...
for
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
blade design and aerodynamic simulation.
[D. Marten,'' et al''., "QBlade: a modern tool for the aeroelastic simulation of wind turbines" PhD Thesis, TU Berlin, 2020. Availabl]
here
Accessed 14 August 2022/ It comes with a user-friendly
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
(GUI) based on
Qt.
Overview
QBlade is a public source wind turbine calculation
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
, distributed under th
Academic Public License The
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
is seamlessly integrated into
XFOIL
XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. Given the coordinates specifying the shape of a 2D airfoil, Reynolds and Mach numbers, XFOIL can calculate the pressure distribution on the airfoil and hen ...
, an
airfoil
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine.
...
design and analysis tool. The purpose of this software is the
design
A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
and aerodynamic simulation of wind turbine blades. The integration in
XFOIL
XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. Given the coordinates specifying the shape of a 2D airfoil, Reynolds and Mach numbers, XFOIL can calculate the pressure distribution on the airfoil and hen ...
allows for the user to rapidly design custom
airfoils
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine.
A ...
and compute their performance curves,
Extrapolating
In mathematics, extrapolation is a type of estimation, beyond the original observation range, of the value of a variable on the basis of its relationship with another variable. It is similar to interpolation, which produces estimates between know ...
the performance data to a range of 360°
Angle of attack
In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...
, and directly integrate them into a wind turbine rotor simulation. The
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...
, including a custom dnymaic graph class for data visualizations makes this software accessible to a large potential user community.
QBlade is especially adequate for teaching, as it provides a ’hands-on’ feeling for
Horizontal-axis wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gi ...
(HAWT) rotor design and shows all the fundamental relationships between blade twist, blade chord, section
airfoil
An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or turbine.
...
performance, turbine control, power and load curves in an easy and intuitive way. QBlade also includes post processing of conducted rotor simulations and gives deep insight into all relevant blade and rotor variables.
Development History
QBlade's development was started in 2009 at the
Hermann Föttinger
Hermann Föttinger (9 February 1877 in Nuremberg – 28 April 1945 in Berlin) was a German engineer and inventor. In the course of his life he submitted over 100 patent applications, but he is most notable for inventing fluid coupling.
Career
...
Institute of
TU Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...
. The 1st online version, released in 2010, was received with positive remarks which led to the continuation of the development.
After the integration of a turbulent wind field generator, a
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
A vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) is a type of wind turbine where the main rotor shaft is set transverse to the wind while the main components are located at the base of the turbine. This arrangement allows the generator and gearbox to be ...
(VAWT) module and a structural Euler-Bernoulli beam module (QFEM) an updated version (v0.8) of the software was released on 9 May 2014.
An updated stable version (v0.96) was released in August 2015. This included a new aerodynamic module which replaced the
BEM of QBlade with a new advanced
Lifting Line Theory (LLT) module. Furthermore, a Free Wake Vortex model was implemented for the accurate representation of the near and far wake of the turbine.
A new version of QBlade was released in August 2022. QBlade Community Edition (QBlade-CE 2.0.4) includes all functionality that is required for the aero-servo-hydro-elastic simulation of wind turbines. For the structural dynamics modelling QBlade integrates the
Project Chrono
Project Chrono is a physics engine developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Parma and members of its open source community. It supports simulating rigid and soft body dynamics, collision detection, vehicle dynamics, fluid- ...
multi-physics library.
Functionality
The functionality of QBlade includes the following features:
![Rotors](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Rotors.png)
* Airfoil generation and modification
* Polar generation and extrapolation
* Rotor design (HAWT and VAWT) including active elements (such as flaps) and damaged blade stations
* Propeller design
* Steady state BEM analysis, fully parallelized parametric BEM
* Structural turbine definition powered by Project Chrono
* Cable elements to model blade cables, guy wires or mooring lines.
* Custom substructure definition (monopile, jacket, floaters)
* Seamless integration of NREL’s TurbSim for turbulent windfield generation
* Linear wave generator (regular, irregular, custom and pre-defined spectra
* Controller Integration (Bladed style, DTU style, TUB style)
* Aero-servo-hydro-elastic wind turbine simulations
* Streamlined ASCII based import / export functionality for all objects in QBlade
* IEC compliant DLC pre-processor
* Multi turbine simulation
* Multi rotor turbine definition
* Full parallelization of aero-hydro-elastic simulations
* Command line interface
* Software in loop interface
* Modal analysis capabilities
License
QBlade is distributed under th
Academic Public License It is maintained and continuously developed at the
Hermann Föttinger
Hermann Föttinger (9 February 1877 in Nuremberg – 28 April 1945 in Berlin) was a German engineer and inventor. In the course of his life he submitted over 100 patent applications, but he is most notable for inventing fluid coupling.
Career
...
Institute of
TU Berlin
The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...
(Chair of Fluid Dynamics) and a
QBlade.org
Validation
QBlade has been successfully validated against the WT_Perf
Blade Element Momentum Theory
In fluid dynamics, momentum theory or disk actuator theory is a theory describing a mathematical model of an ideal actuator disk, such as a propeller or helicopter rotor, by W.J.M. Rankine (1865), Alfred George Greenhill (1888) and (1889).
The ...
code of
NWTC. Furthermore, it showed good agreement with the experimental performance data measured at the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) laborat ...
wind tunnel during the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and d ...
10m Wind Turbine Testing campaign
[, NREL 10-m Wind Turbine Testing in NASA Ames 80'x120' Wind Tunnel.]
See also
*
Wind energy software Specialized wind energy software applications aid in the development and operation of wind farms.
Pre-feasibility and feasibility analysis
The RETScreen software wind power model is designed to evaluate energy production and savings, costs, emiss ...
*
Blade element theory Blade element theory (BET) is a mathematical process originally designed by William Froude (1878), David W. Taylor (1893) and Stefan Drzewiecki to determine the behavior of propellers. It involves breaking a blade down into several small parts th ...
*
Momentum theory
In fluid dynamics, momentum theory or disk actuator theory is a theory describing a mathematical model of an ideal actuator disk, such as a propeller or helicopter rotor, by W.J.M. Rankine (1865), Alfred George Greenhill (1888) and (1889).
The ...
*
XFOIL
XFOIL is an interactive program for the design and analysis of subsonic isolated airfoils. Given the coordinates specifying the shape of a 2D airfoil, Reynolds and Mach numbers, XFOIL can calculate the pressure distribution on the airfoil and hen ...
*
Lifting Line Theory
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
QBlade WebsiteSoftware DownloadUsers ForumDocumentationChair of Fluid Dynamics at the TU Berlin
{{CAE software
Wind turbines
Aerodynamics
Engineering software that uses Qt
Computer-aided engineering software for Linux