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BladeComp

BladeComp – a design and optimisation software for wind and tidal turbine blades

Introduction

bladecomp-logo

BladeComp is an in-house developed wind/tidal turbine blade design and optimisation software. The BladeComp comprises advanced Finite Element (FE) analysis techniques and design optimisation strategies for efficient, robust and rapid design of turbine blades. The methodology for designing wind/tidal blade is utilized by the BladeComp‌, which can produce blade model for a range of input properties, such as air-foils, composite materials and layup distributions.

This software has been used to design rotor blades for the 2 MW Orbital Marine Power floating tidal turbine device, which is manufactured in Ireland (Galway) by ÉireComposites and is tested in our facility under static and fatigue loading. The test results validate the reliability of this software. The BladeComp is also used to optimise the structural performance of a 15kw wind turbine blade, where the strength of the optimised blade is significantly improved without increase the blade mass. In the worldwide context, this will put the MaREI Centre at NUI Galway at the forefront of design and testing of full-scale tidal turbine rotor blades, rotor blades, which is necessary to exploit the full potential of marine energy as a significant renewable resource.

Features

  • Blade geometry creation 
  • Composite layers assignment 
  • Input file generation for FE software, ABAQUS, Ansys APDL and CalculiX 
  • Structure behaviour Optimisation (under development) 

bladecomp-mainwindow

bladecomp-features

Downloads & Resources

BladeComp Demo Installer 0.76 (x64)

I‌f you get the "missing dll file error", please install the "VC_redist.x64.exe" in the program folder.

BladeComp User manual.pdf

4m Tidal Blade Example File

Contacts

Dr Yadong Jiang, yadong.jiang@universityofgalway.ie

Dr William Finnegan, william.finnegan@universityofgalway.ie

Prof Jamie Goggins, jamie.goggins@universityofgalway.ie

Publications

Year Publication
2024 Ahmad, A., Munaweera Thanthirige, T.R., Finnegan, W., Jiang, Y., Flanagan, M., Kazemi Vanhari, A. and Goggins, J. (2024), “Evaluating the structural changes during physical testing of a full-scale 13 metre long wind turbine blade”, in Proceeding of the Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2024, Galway, Ireland, pp. 487–493. [link]  
2023 Jiang, Y., Finnegan, W., Wallace, F., Flanagan, M., Flanagan, T. and Goggins, J. (2023), “Structural analysis of a fibre-reinforced composite blade for a 1 MW tidal turbine rotor under degradation of seawater”, Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy, Vol. 9, pp. 477–494, doi: 10.1007/s40722-023-00279-w.
2023 Jiang, Y., Finnegan, W. and Goggins, J. (2023), “Structural performance optimisation of a composite rotor blade for retrofitting a 225-kW wind turbine”, in Oceans 2023, Limerick, Ireland, doi: 10.1109/OCEANSLimerick52467.2023.10244552.
2023 Jiang, Y., Finnegan, W., Flanagan, T. and Goggins, J. (2023), “Optimisation of Highly Efficient Composite Blades for Retrofitting Existing Wind Turbines”, Energies, Vol. 16 No. 1, p. 102, doi: 10.3390/en16010102.
2022 Finnegan, W., Jiang, Y., Meier, P., Hung, L.C., Fagan, E., Wallace, F., Glennon, C., et al. (2022), “Numerical modelling, manufacture and structural testing of a full-scale 1 MW tidal turbine blade”, Ocean Engineering, Vol. 266 No. 1, p. 112717, doi: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2022.112717.
2022 Jiang, Y., Fagan, E.M., Finnegan, W., Kazemi Vanhari, A., Meier, P., Salawdeh, S., Colm, W., et al. (2022), “Design and Structural Testing of Blades for a 2MW Floating Tidal Energy Conversion Device”, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 20, pp. 74–80, doi: 10.21741/9781644901731-10
2021 Jiang, Y., Finnegan, W., Wallace, F., Flanagan, M., Flanagan, T. and Goggins, J. (2022), “Numerical Modelling and Structural Analysis of a 1 MW Tidal Turbine Blade”, The 9th Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering (Marine 2021), doi: 10.2218/marine2021.6799.
2021 Jiang, Y., Finnegan, W., Wallace, F., Flanagan, M., Flanagan, T. and Goggins, J. (2021), “Structural Analysis of a 1 MW Tidal Turbine Blade through Full-Scale Physical Testing and a Digital Twin”, in The Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering, UK.
2020 Finnegan, W., Jiang, Y., Dumergue, N., Davies, P. and Goggins, J. (2021), “Investigation and Validation of Numerical Models for Composite Wind Turbine Blades”, Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Vol. 9 No. 5, p. 525, doi: 10.3390/jmse9050525.
2020 Finnegan, W., Jiang, Y., Dumergue, N., Davies, P. and Goggins, J. (2021), “Structural testing and FEA dataset for a composite turbine blade”, SEANOE, doi: 10.17882/80564.
2020 Kazemi Vanhari, A., Fagan, E., Jiang, Y., Meier, P., Finnegan, W. and Goggins, J. (2020), “Equivalent Load Profile Development For Fatigue Testing Of a 13-Metre Wind Turbine Blade”, in Civil Engineering Research in Ireland 2020: Conference Proceedings, Cork, Ireland, pp. 253–258.
2019 Jiang, Y., Fagan, E.M., Goggins, J., 2019. Structural design and optimisation of a full-scale tidal turbine blade, in: Vicinanza, D. (Ed.), Proceedings of the Thirteenth European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference. Presented at the the Thirteenth European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, EWTEC, Universitá degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy. [link]
2018 Fagan, E.M., De La Torre, O., Leen, S.B., Goggins, J., 2018. Validation of the multi-objective structural optimisation of a composite wind turbine blade. Compos. Struct. 204, 567–577. [DOI]
2017 Fagan, E.M., 2017. Design of fibre-reinforced polymer composite blades for wind and tidal turbines (PhD Thesis). National University of Ireland, Galway. [link]
2017 Fagan, E. M., Flanagan, M., Leen, S.B., Flanagan, T., Doyle, A., Goggins, J., 2017. Physical experimental static testing and structural design optimisation for a composite wind turbine blade. Compos. Struct. 164, 90–103. [DOI]
2017 Fagan, Edward M., Leen, S.B., Torre, O. de la, Goggins, J., 2017. Experimental investigation, numerical modelling and multi-objective optimisation of composite wind turbine blades. J. Struct. Integr. Maint. 2, 109–119. [DOI]