Abstract

The linear scaling laws for upscaling wind turbine blades show a linear increase of stresses due to the weight. However, the stresses should remain the same for a suitable design. Application of linear scaling laws may lead to an upscaled blade that may not be any more a feasible design. In this paper a non-linear upscaling approach is presented with the aim of keeping the stresses in the upscaled blade the same as the reference blade. The stresses due to the weight, aerodynamics and centrifugal forces are taken into account and the blade is modeled as a beam with equivalent structural properties. This new methodology is used to upscale the 5 MW NREL wind turbine blade to a 20 MW wind turbine blade. As a result, a 20 MW wind turbine blade is obtained in which the stresses are the same as the 5 MW blade. This provides initial blade design solution for optimization studies that is feasible and enables the designer to explore other interesting aspects of larger scale wind turbines.