MSC Software Corporation (MSC), the leader in multidiscipline simulation solutions that accelerate product innovation, today announced the new 2012 version of its Advanced Wind Turbine Modeling (AdWiMo) solution.
AdWiMo allows rapid modeling and accurate system simulation of wind turbines. As a plug-in to Adams, the multibody dynamics analysis software from MSC, the new version of AdWiMo fully supports the new Adams 2012 interface and better addresses areas of the certification process for wind turbines.
Design validation and certification of wind turbines is mandatory in almost all countries and is essential to designing a mechanically reliable wind turbine. Certification involves the testing of operation and safety concepts as well as design loads and load calculations. As part of a certification, more than 1,000 simulation runs may be necessary.
AdWiMo helps to manage and simplify this process. With the new Load and Analysis Manager (LAM) within AdWiMo, wind turbine analysts can import their model, setup, execute and post process the simulations they need for a certification, based on different norms and guidelines.
Other enhancements of the new version include an updated topology for direct drive turbines, the ability to introduce smoothened aerodynamic forces via a step function, automatic calculation of the fatigue limit summary, and first level integration of MSC Fatigue for post processing.
AdWiMo considers every major aspect of turbine design including tower, blades, hub, mainframe, gearbox housing, bearings, transmission, controls (generator, pitch, yaw), aerodynamic and centrifugal forces, coriolis acceleration, gyroscopic moments, point loads, gravity, thermal loads, and wave loads from 3rd parties.
The tool offers a user-friendly and scalable solution for the complete design process of a wind turbine. This means that a simplified wind turbine in a conceptual design phase can be expanded to a fully detailed design by introducing more complex subsystems such as gears and rolling bearings and/or by replacing rigid bodies with flexible bodies.
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Offshore WIND staff, July 31, 2012; Image: MSC