Design and Optimisation of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Housing to Standards
H.D.Morgan1, S.A. Rolland1, J.Sienz1, A.J.Gil1, D.C.Bould1, R.Ellis2
1

College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK

h.d.morgan, s.rolland, j.sienz, a.j.gil, d.c.bould@swansea.ac.uk
2
Cross-Flow Energy Company Limited (C-FEC), Technium Digital, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK
re@c-fec.com

Abstract
Optimisation techniques have been used extensively over the last decades to assist in the design of steel
structures. This paper describes the integrated use of a number of these techniques in the costing and design of a
large-scale housing for a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) satisfying British Standards. The problem is
complex with seven different wind loadings applied to an atypical geometry and as many as 1400 design
variables. The housing is subject to displacement, stress and buckling constraints on each component. Ease of
transportation and manufacturability are also considered in the design.
The aerodynamic outer surface of the housing was predetermined and computational fluid dynamic modelling
was used to determine the pressure loads on the housing under different orientations. An initial topological
optimisation identified a suitable construction method for the design. These results indicated a space frame
approach. A steel framework of circular hollow sections was established based on the results of the
optimisation. Continuous gradient-based size optimisation using global search methods was carried out on each
of the structural members. A discrete size optimisation followed to enable the structure to be built from a small
number of standard sections. The final design was tested to ensure conformity with British Standard BS 5950:12000.
Designs were obtained for 11 different sized structures all conforming to the British Standards. The housings
were split into sub-divisions suitable for transportation by road or rail. Each housing was constructed using no
more than 12 standard sized sections. The study has provided weight data for assessing the most appropriate
structure for future industrial development including aspects of manufacture and cost. A suitable step-wise
method has been developed for solving large-scale optimisation problems with both large numbers of design
variables and constraints.
Keywords: Optimal Design, Wind Turbine, Vertical Axis, British Standards

1. Introduction
Numerical methods and faster computing speeds have enabled designers to make greater use of optimisation
algorithms to assist in structural design. Often a number of different optimisation algorithms and techniques
need to be used to ensure the best results are achieved at each stage of the design. The main aim of this work
was to use such an approach to determine the optimum design for a VAWT housing. A range of different
housing sizes were to be considered in order to predict the most cost effective size for future construction. A
secondary objective was to establish a robust methodology to ensure that the designs would conform to British
Standards.
Fig. 1 shows the proposed housing shape provided by the Cross-flow Energy Company (C-FEC) (C-fec 2012).
Under normal operating conditions this support structure would be positioned on the turbine perimeter not only
to avoid interference with the incoming wind, but also to enhance the airflow to the blades though the
aerodynamic shape of its surface. At this stage the exact construction of the housing had yet to be determined.
The material, positioning and geometry needed to be selected for maximum stiffness while minimising weight
and thereby material cost.

Morgan et al

2. Optimisation
The optimisation problem was to minimise the total mass of the
housing subject to the following constraints:
i)

The stress levels in any part of the structure should not exceed
300MPa
ii) The permissible displacement at the top of the housing was
limited according to height
iii) No buckling in any component of the structure was permitted
iv) The optimised design must satisfy British Standards BS 59501:2000 (Standard, B 2000).

Fig. 1 Proposed housing for VAWT

In addition to this two other factors needed to be considered in the design of the housing:
a) Manufacturability it was intended that the most of the construction should take place in the factory and
only minimal fabrication requiring a semi-skilled workforce should take place at the final location. The
limiting factor in sizing the prefabricated parts was found to be the load size that could be transported. The
cost of manufacture or assembly was not included in this study.
b) Transportation Weight and dimensional limits on road and rail transportation in the UK and EU have
been used to determine the maximum size. These gave a constraint in width of between 2.4 & 3m and a
weight limit of 28 tonnes.
In order to ensure that the structure would be capable of withstanding high wind conditions it was necessary to
determine the loading on the housing under worst case conditions.

3. CFD
The strategy used to capture the loads on the rotor and peripheral structure made use of computational fluid
dynamics (CFD). The software, PHYSICA (Croft, TN, Pericleous, K et al. 1995) used a finite volume
discretisation to solve the equations of conservation of momentum and mass, which for a Newtonian
incompressible fluid are:

( u ) .( uu ) .( u ) p S
t
.( u) 0

(1)

(2)

Here, , u, and p represent the density, velocity, viscosity and pressure of the fluid. S represents a source of
momentum.
To predict the fluid flow around the turbine, it was necessary to solve these equations for the unknown
variables, velocity and pressure fields, with respect to initial and boundary values within a space and time
domain which is achieved through CFD simulation. The technique employed here to model the turbine was the
cell-centred finite volume method. The technique relies on a discretisation of the simulated domain into small
control volumes or cells. PHYSICA used the standard finite volume cell centred discretisation scheme found in
the literature. Additionally, the Rhie-Chow interpolation scheme (Rhie, CM and Chow, WL 1983) was applied
to the momentum equation ( 1 ) to minimise spurious oscillations of velocity in the computational solutions and

Design and Optimisation of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Housing to Standards

the SIMPLEC method (Patankar, SV and Spalding, DB 1972; Van Doormal, JP and Raithby, GD 1984) was
used to ensure that the pressure field was coupled with the continuity equation ( 2 ).
The transient behaviour of the rotor was simulated by using a conforming sliding mesh algorithm (Croft, TN,
Carswell, D et al. 2009; Rolland, S and Williams, AJ 2009). Seven wind incidence cases were selected for
simulation representing a range of breakdown scenarios in which the turbine needed to sustain winds up to 73
m s-1 (British Standards BS 5950-1:2000, Class 1). The simulations were then post-processed with a script
searching through the simulated load history for the highest force levels from the rotor and the largest highest
pressure load levels applied to the surrounding structure.

4. Optimisation Methodology
In order to establish a suitable design for the housing a number
of discrete work phases needed to be carried out. The
procedures followed are shown in the flow diagram of Fig. 2
and described in the following sections.
4.1

Topology

Using Altair Optistruct v 11.0 software (Altair Hyperworks

2011) a topological optimisation was carried out on the whole
structure. The optimiser used the Solid Isotropic Material with
Penalisation (SIMP) (Bendse, MP 1989; Rozvany, GIN, Zhou,
M et al. 1992) method. The geometry was divided into a large
number of discrete finite elements and the material density of
each element was used as the design variable. By selecting an
appropriate volume fraction of the material in the geometry to a
value less than 1 and using an iterative approach the optimiser
effectively moves material to where it is needed and omits it
from where it is not.
Fig. 3 shows a plan view of the results of the topological
optimisation for one of the structures. The analysis indicated
that a space-frame structure was most suitable for the housing
design.
Fig. 2 Flow chart for optimisation methodology

Fig. 3 Typical result from topological optimisation

Morgan et al

Based on the results of the topological optimisation, considering the manufacturing and transport constraints and
using engineering judgement a framework was set up for each housing similar to that shown in Fig. 4. The
vertical height of the space frame was split into 4 similar sections in this case for prefabrication to satisfy the
limitations on transportation size. It was envisaged that the framework would be clad in a lightweight external
non-loadbearing skin to provide good aerodynamic properties.

4.2

Continuous Size Optimisation

This framework was subjected to a size optimisation in Altair Optistruct.

Circular hollow steel sections were used for ease of manufacture for each
of the members. The design variables were the inner radii and wall
thickness of each member, which gave as many as 1400 variables in the
largest of the structures analysed. First order linear static analysis was
used as the deformations in the structure were assumed to be small. The
size optimisation was considered to be continuous as each section was
permitted to take any value within a specified continuous range. The
optimiser used a gradient based method. These algorithms do not
guarantee that the solution will converge to the best feasible solution in
the whole design space. Global search techniques using multiple starting
points were used to increase the likelihood of identifying a better
minimum.

Fig. 4 Space frame design for VAWT

housing

4.3

Discrete Size Optimisation

It would be impracticable to manufacture the housing from sections with

individually unique dimensions and so a second size optimisation was used to a) limit the number of different
sections used and b) use only readily available standard sections.
Taking the results of the lowest value of mass found in the continuous size optimisation the members were
assigned to twelve different sections chosen randomly from a total of 154 available sections. These ranged from
0.0213-0.6m outer diameter and 0.003-0.05m wall thickness. The cross sectional area and area moment of
inertia for the bar in the discrete optimisation was at least as great as that calculated by the continuous
optimisation. The discrete optimisation problem was solved using the built-in solver of Microsoft Office Excel
2010. The optimiser used an Evolutionary Solver which Microsoft describe as a hybrid of genetic and
evolutionary algorithms and classical optimisation methods (Frontline Solvers Inc 2012). Like the gradientbased method of Section 4.2, the evolutionary algorithm does not guarantee that the global minimum will be
found. However, repeated application of the algorithm with variation in population size, mutation rate and limits
on the maximum generations established a confidence that the solutions found are the best of the local minima.
The results of the discrete optimisation were fed back through Optistruct to ensure that the structure still
satisfied the optimisation criteria of Section 2 (i)-(iii). Where violations occurred the member size was
incrementally increased to the next available section size and once more checked for conformity. In most cases
only a very small number of members needed adjusting in this way.

4.4 Conforming to British Standard

Once the optimised discrete solution had been achieved the structure was checked against the British Standard
BS 5950:1-2000 Structural Use of Steelwork in Building, Part 1: Code of practice for design Rolled and
welded sections. The housing was assessed using a continuous design, i.e. for elastic analysis the welded joints
of the structure were assumed to have sufficient rotational stiffness to resist the moments resulting from the
analysis. In all cases it was found to be permissible under the criteria of the Standards to class the structures as
sway in-sensitive and so first order linear elastic analysis from the optimisation calculations was still valid. The
secondary effects of the forces and moments were assessed using the Effective Length method.

Design and Optimisation of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Housing to Standards

Almost without exception the discrete solution satisfied the British Standards without further changes to the
sections. The British Standards check provided additional evidence that these results are not only
mathematically sound but also feasible in terms of structural safety.

5. Results
The optimisation was undertaken for housings with three different diameters, two of which were evaluated at
four different heights and the third at only three. The results of the discrete optimisation are shown in Fig. 5.
Each structure is made up of no more than 12 different standard sections. The graph of the mass sizes shows
that for each diameter the data gives a good correlation (R2>0.99) to a second order polynomial. The structures
at the different diameters did not have the same configuration of members around the perimeter of the housing
and so it would not be appropriate to combine this data to determine a simpler relationship.

Fig. 5 Variation in optimised mass with height in multiples of diameter

For the smallest diameter structure the relationship between the height and the mass is almost linear whereas for
the larger structures the mass increases much more sharply with the increased height. This is particularly
pronounced for the largest diameter structures.

6. Conclusion
A successful methodology has been established to find an optimal design for the housing structure for a VAWT.
This approach has identified using a space-frame structure composed of no more than 12 different standard size
sections which has been shown to conform to British Standard BS:5950-1:2000. The optimised mass results for
11 different structure sizes have been obtained to enable trends to establish the most cost effective sizes for
future construction.
Acknowledgements
This work was a collaboration between ASTUTE (a European Regional Development Funded) project and the Cross-Flow
Energy Company. All support is gratefully acknowledged.

Morgan et al

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