Tidal Bladed Knowledge Base

Support structure deflections and global positions
Category: Structural dynamics

Problem

How are the following variables defined in Bladed? 

- Support structure deflections / velocities / accelerations

- Support structure globlal positions / velocities / accelerations

Solution

Support structure deflections:
Tower proximal node coordinates i.e. tower base or modal reference node coordinates. For a fixed base turbine, this aligns with global coordinates
 o Translational deflection relative to tower base.
 o Rotational deflection relative to tower base output as rotation vector (axis-angle convention*)

Support structure velocities:
Tower proximal node (tower base) coordinates.
 o Translational velocity relative to tower base.
 o Rotational velocity relative to tower base output as rotation vector (axis-angle convention*)

Support structure accelerations:
Tower proximal node (tower base) coordinates.
 o Translational acceleration relative to tower base.
 o Rotational acceleration relative to tower base output as rotation vector (axis-angle convention*)

Support structure global positions:
Global position of support structure node, in global coordinates.
 o Position relative to global (0,0,0)
 o Orientation relative to global coordinate system. For a fixed base turbines, all support structure nodes initially have the same orientation as the global coordinate system.

Support structure global velocities:
Global velocity of support structure node, in global coordinates.
 o Absolute translational velocity of node 
 o Absolute angular velocity of node

Support structure global accelerations:
Global acceleration of support structure node, in global coordinates.
 o Absolute translational acceleration of node
 o Absolute angular acceleration of node

* The axis-angle convention refers to the convention used to output rotation angles. This means that the rotational displacement from the undeflected orientation is considered as a single rotation about an axis. This rotation can be expressed as 3 orthogonal vectors aligned with e.g. the tower base coordinates. The 3 components of this rotation vector are output as the x, y and z rotational displacements.





Keywords support structure, deflection