A Comparison of Wind Turbine Aeroelastic Codes Used for Certification

Abstract

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created aeroelastic simulators for horizontal-axis wind turbines. The U.S. wind energy industry often uses these codes to analyze its turbines, and manufacturers seeking type certification for their turbines need to use codes that certifying agencies will accept. NREL brokered an agreement with Germanischer Lloyd (GL) WindEnergie GmbH, the world’s foremost certifying body for wind turbines, to participate in a comparison between its code and two of NREL’s codes. Af-ter a variety of exercises, GL issued a statement that it is acceptable for manufacturers to use the NREL codes for on-shore wind turbine certification. I.