3D-Multi Body Simulation of Wind Turbines with Flexible Components

A new method and an example of a 3-dimensional simulation of the dynamic behaviour of wind turbine generator systems (WTGS) is presented. The essential feature is a multi body simulation of a complete 3-D model of the wind turbine including flexible elements (for example rotor and tower). By reducing the analysis to standard methods in multi body simulations (MBS) and finite element methods (FEM) the simulation model avoids programming errors. Both, motion and forces at any point of interest within the turbine can be represented by 3D animation, graphs or result files for advanced analysis.