UVLM-ORIENTED MESH GENERATOR FOR WIND TURBINES

Currently, the unsteady vortex-lattice method (UVLM) is increasingly being used to study the aerodynamic and aeroelastic behavior of large inshore/offshore horizontal-axis wind-turbines (LHAWT), and airborne wind energy systems (AWES). UVLM-based codes present an excellent trade-off between computational cost and precision. However, this method requires special meshes (enriched with specific data) that are not generally provided by standard mesh generators. In this work, we present the general description of an interactive UVLM-oriented mesh generator developed entirely in MATLAB R /GNU OCTAVE for wind turbines. The mesher allows the generation of general aerodynamic grids for inshore/offshore wind turbines with pre-bend blades, ducted wind turbines, rotors, and floating wind turbines such as the one proposed by ALTAEROS.