We have recently put together a validation study which compares the aeroelastic response of the IEA 22 MW reference wind turbine (RWT) calculated by OrcaFlex, versus OpenFAST (running BeamDyn).
A report summarising a full comparison of results can be downloaded from the validation page of the Orcina website. The study considers the structural dynamics of the turbine blade oscillating freely under gravity and the aeroelastic response of the rotor-nacelle assembly (RNA) & tower to steady, stepped, skewed & turbulent wind.
Included with the report is the OrcaFlex model we have used to support the validation study. The model includes the rotor, nacelle and tower only i.e. no fixed / floating foundation has been considered as part of this study. The data used as input to this model have been gathered from version 1.0.1 of the the windIO dataset, made available through the IEA-22-280-RWT GitHub repository. The windIO ontology contains the majority of data required to specify an OrcaFlex turbine model. Any absent data have been sourced from the available OpenFAST and HAWC2 datasets. Further details about this can be found in Section 2.1 of the validation report.
Also included with the model is version 2.9.0 of NREL’s Reference Open Source Controller (ROSCO), complete with the necessary input files distributed as part of the ‘IEA-22-280-RWT-Monopile’ dataset.
Overall, we have found the results to be in very close agreement, supporting both the validity of the OrcaFlex RWT model and consistency across the two aeroelastic codes. Included below are some select results from the validation report.
We hope this resource will be helpful to anyone modelling wind turbines in OrcaFlex. We always welcome any questions or feedback, so please do contact us for any further enquiries.
