Software Development, Modeling, and Analysis
This screen shot of a small turbine is from the commercial ADAMS design code, one of the simulators used to model wind turbines at the NWTC.
To accurately predict the behavior of new design concepts, NREL has developed many software tools that produce realistic models that simulate the behavior of a wind turbine in complex environments - storm winds, waves offshore, earthquake loading, and extreme turbulence - and model the effects of turbulent inflow, unsteady aerodynamic forces, structural dynamics, drivetrain response, and control systems. NREL has also developed preprocessors to help build the models, postprocessors to analyze the results, and utilities to run and manage the processing tasks.
In 2005, NREL researchers worked with Germanischer Lloyd of Hamburg, Germany to approve two of NREL's wind turbine design codes for calculating land-based wind turbine loads for design and certification. Although many U.S. wind turbine manufacturers have relied on these design codes to estimate the design loads of their turbines in the past, until recently, the codes were not accepted by certifying agencies in Europe.
For more information about NREL's design codes, visit Wind and Hydropower Technology Analysis Models and Tools.
