International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138

A model for yawing dynamic optimization of a wind turbine structure

Karam Y. Maalawi

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Research Centre, 12622 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Received 14 September 2006; received in revised form 16 February 2007; accepted 25 February 2007
Available online 6 March 2007
Abstract
A novel design optimization model for placing frequencies of a wind turbine tower/nacelle/rotor structure in free yawing motion is
developed and discussed. The main aim is to avoid large amplitudes caused by the yawing-induced vibrations in the case of horizontal-
axis wind turbines or rotational motion of the blades about the tower axis in case of vertical-axis wind turbines. This can be a major
cause of fatigue failure and might severely damage the whole tower/nacelle/rotor structure. The mathematical formulation considers a
single pole tower conguration having thin-walled circular cross section with constant taper along the tower height. The nacelle/rotor
combination is modeled as a rigid mass elastically supported at the top of the tower by the torsional spring of the yawing mechanism.
Adequate scaling and non-dimensionalization of the various parameters and variables are given in order to make the model valid for a
variety of wind turbine congurations and types of the material of construction. The resulting governing differential equation of motion
is solved analytically by transforming it into a standard form of Bessels equation, which leads to the necessary exact solutions for the
frequencies and mode shapes. Several cases of study are examined for different values of the yawing stiffness and inertia parameters by
considering both conditions of locked and unlocked yawing mechanism. Useful design charts are developed for placing the frequencies at
their needed target values with no penalty of increasing the total structural weight of the system. In all, the developed model guarantees
full separation of the system frequencies from the critical exciting yawing frequencies by proper choice of the optimization design
parameters.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Wind turbines; Design optimization; Yawing dynamics; Torsional vibration
1. Introduction
One of the most important aspects of R&D in the wind
energy programs is the accuracy of analyzing structural
dynamics of wind turbines; a crucial factor in determining
fatigue life of the turbine. In addition, the expected future
increase in the size of wind turbines put high demands for
ultimate load-carrying capacity and resonance avoidance.
Madsen et al. [1] demonstrated that a wind turbine design
should comprise investigation of the strength with regard to
ultimate and fatigue loads. These loads may arise from
extreme situations such as extreme wind speeds with parked
rotor (i.e. locked yawing mechanism), or during yawing
motion with unlocked yawing mechanism in normal
operating conditions. The ultimate strength of a wind
turbine is mainly governed by the tower/rotor structure,
which represents the main-load-carrying part of the turbine.
Therefore, the need to optimize designs further emphasizes
the need for accurate predictions of the ultimate strength as
well as the structural dynamics of the system. Research is
continuing for a better investigation of the dynamic
interactions between the rotor, nacelle and the tower
structures. A recent paper dealing with this issue and the
simulation of wind turbine dynamics was presented by
Florin et al. [2], who developed different tools for
performing the analysis of the interaction between the
mechanical system of the wind turbine and the electrical grid
as well as the calculation of the dynamic loads on the turbine
structure. In case of horizontal-axis wind turbines, the
rotation of the nacelle/rotor combination with respect to the
tower axis, called yawing motion, is an important degree of
freedom in the system dynamics. Such a rigid body motion is
produced by the yawing mechanism to direct the rotor
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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towards the wind in order to maximize energy capture [3,4].
Usually, this is accomplished actively with an electrical or
hydraulic yaw servo. A wind vane, placed on top of the
nacelle, senses the wind direction. The servo is activated
when the mean relative wind direction exceeds some
predened limits. Therefore, the wind turbine spends much
of its time yawed in order to face the rapidly changing wind
direction, so it would seem reasonable to expect that designs
should have a sufcient understanding of the turbine
response in that condition to take it properly into account.
There are frequent yaw system failures world-wide on wind
turbines, where some statistical studies [5] indicated that
such failures accounts for about 1015% of breakdowns in
any given year the wind plant is in operation. This fact
emphasizes the need to improve the design of yaw
mechanisms in order to increase the availability of turbines
and reduce their maintenance overheads. One of the most
cost-effective solutions in designing efcient yaw mechan-
isms and reducing the produced vibrations is to separate the
natural frequencies of the tower/nacelle/rotor structure from
the critical exciting yawing frequencies. This would avoid
resonance where large amplitudes of vibration could
severely damage the whole structure. The frequency-place-
ment technique [6,7] is based on minimizing an objective
function constructed from a weighted sum of the squares of
the differences between each important frequency and its
desired (target) value. Approximate values of the target
frequencies are usually chosen to be within close ranges;
sometimes called frequency-windows; of those correspond-
ing to a reference baseline design, which are adjusted to be
far away from the critical exciting frequencies. Direct
maximization of the system natural frequencies is also
favorable for increasing the overall stiffness-to-mass ratio
level of the structure being excited [810]. This may further
other design objectives such as higher stability and fatigue
life and lower cost and noise levels. Practical models of beam
structures were formulated in Ref. [11], where dynamic
analysis and structural design were performed simulta-
neously by nite element method coupled with constrained
optimization algorithm.
The scope of the present work is to perform rst the
necessary exact dynamical analysis of a practical model of
the wind turbine in order to be able to place the frequencies
at their target values. Secondly, the behavior of the yawing
fundamental frequency will be investigated in detail to see
how it changes with the selected design variables. Cases of
study include the locked and unlocked conditions of the
yawing mechanism. Design variables encompass the cross-
sectional properties of the tower and its tapering ratio, as
well as the yawing stiffness and the rotor/nacelle inertia
ratios. It is demonstrated that global optimality can be
achieved from the proposed model and an accurate method
for the exact placement of the system natural frequencies is
deduced.
2. Governing equation of motion
The system to be analyzed is illustrated in Fig. 1. The
rotor/nacelle combination is considered as a rigid body
with mass polar moment of inertia I
N
spinning about the
vertical axis, X, at an angular displacement c(t) relative to
the top of the tower. The tower is in the state of free
torsional vibration about its centroidal axis with an
absolute angular displacement denoted by j(x, t). The
yawing mechanism is assumed to have a linear torsional
spring with a stiffness K
y
. Applying the classical theory of
torsion [12], the governing equation of the motion is cast in
the following:
q
qx
GJx
qjx; t
qx
rI
p
x
q
2
jx; t
qt
2
(1)
subject to the boundary conditions:
at the tower base x 0 j0; t 0
at the top of tower x H
GJ
qj
qx

xH
K
y
ct I
N
q
2
j
qt
2

q
2
c
qt
2
_ _
, 2
where GJ(x) and rI
p
(x) represent the torsional stiffness and
the mass polar moment of inertia per unit length,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Nomenclature
G shear modulus of tower material
H hub height
h tower wall thickness
h
o
wall thickness at tower base
I
N
mass polar moment of inertia of the nacelle/
rotor combination
J torsional constant of the tower cross sectional
area
K
y
yawing stiffness coefcient
r mean radius of the tower cross section
r
H
mean radius at top of tower
r
o
mean radius at tower base
t time variable
x distance along tower height measured from its
base
j(x, t) elastic rotation of the tower section
c(t) rigid body rotation of the rotor/nacelle combi-
nation relative to the top of tower
r mass density of tower material
D taper ratio (r
H
/r
o
)
b (1D)
o circular frequency of torsional vibration
^ o dimensionless frequency oH

r=G
_

z ^ o=b
x z D
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1131
respectively. The twisting angle j(x, t) is assumed
to be separable in space and time, j(x, t) F(x) q(t),
where the time dependence q(t) is harmonic with circular
frequency o.
The associated eigenvalue problem can be written
directly in the form
d
dx
GJx
dF
dx
_ _
rI
p
xo
2
Fx 0. (3)
The boundary conditions are obtained by substituting
for d
2
q=dt
2
o
2
q in Eq. (2) to get:
at x 0 Fx 0
at x H
GJ
c
o
dF
dx
K
y
0; c
o

GJ
o
2
I
N
dF
dx
F
_ _
. 4
Considering a tapered, thin-walled tower, the various
cross sectional parameters are dened by the following
expressions (refer to Fig. 1):
mean radius : r r
o
1 b^ x,
wall thickness : h h
o
1 b^ x,
torsional constant : J I
p
2pr
3
h. 5
The variables r and h are assumed to have the same
linear distribution, and ^ x and b are dimensionless
quantities dened as:
^ x
x
H
; b 1 D; D r
H
=r
o
, (6)
where D denotes the taper ratio of the wind turbine tower.
3. Solution procedure
The second-order ordinary differential equation given by
Eq. (3) with the associated boundary conditions of Eq. (4)
can lead to a closed-form solution for calculating the
frequencies and mode shapes. Solutions for other special
cases corresponding to some limiting conditions, such as a
uniform tower with D 1 (i.e. b 0), are given latter in
Table 2 of this section.
Introducing the transformation
^ x
1
b

1
^ o
y; ba0, (7)
the torsional constant of the tower cross section can be
expressed as
J 2pr
3
o
h
o
b
^ o
_ _
4
y
4
, (8)
where ^ o oH

r=G
_
is a dimensionless frequency para-
meter. Eq. (3) is now transformed into
d
2
F
dy
2

4
y
dF
dy
F 0, (9)
which can be further transformed to the standard form of
Bessels equation by setting F (y)
3/2
y, to get
y
2
d
2
y
dy
2
y
dy
dy
y
2

9
4
_ _
y 0, (10)
which has the solution
yy C
1
J
3=2
C
2
J
3=2
, (11)
where C
1
and C
2
are constants of integration and J
3/2
and J
3/2
are Bessels functions of order k 73/2, given
by [13]
J
3=2
y

2
py
3

sin y y cos y,
J
3=2
y

2
py
3

cos y y sin y. 12
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Fig. 1. Horizontal-axis wind turbine in free yawing motion.
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1132
Finally, the exact analytical solution of the associated
eigenvalue problem can be shown to have the form:
Fy A
y cos y sin y
y
3
_ _
B
y sin y cos y
y
3
_ _
, (13)
where A and B are constants depend on the imposed
boundary conditions:
at y z ^ o=b Fy 0
at y x zD
^ odF=dy
c
o

^
K
y
=
^
J 0;
c
o

^
J
^ o
^
I
N
dF
dy
F
_ _
. 14
All quantities with the hat symbol (4) are dimensionless
quantities obtained by dividing by the corresponding
parameters of a baseline tower design having uniform
properties and same structural mass, height and material of
the optimized tower design (refer to Table 1). Applying the
boundary conditions, as described by Eqs. (14), and
considering only nontrivial solution of Eq. (13), that is
A60 and B60, it is straightforward to obtain the frequency
equation in the following compacted form:
^ o
2
a ^ o
^
J=
^
I
N

^
K
y
=
^
J 0;
a
x ^ o 1 zx tan ^ o
x
2
3z tan ^ o 3x1 z tan ^ o
. 15
It is to be noted that in the above equations
^
J is the
dimensionless torsional constant at the top of tower and is
equal to ^ r
3
o
^
h
o
D
4
(refer to Eq. (5)). The frequency equations
for the special cases of the limiting conditions are
summarized in Table 2.
Once the exact dimensionless natural frequencies have
been determined the associated mode shapes can be
obtained from:
Fy A
y cos y y sin y
y
3
_ _

z tan z
1 z tan z
_ _ _

y sin y cos y
y
3
_ __
. 16
4. Formulation of the optimum design problem
Attractive goals of designing efcient structures of wind
turbines include minimization of structural weight, max-
imization of the fundamental frequencies [810], and
maximization of energy capture by the wind rotor [14]. In
the present model formulation the design variable vector is
selected to be
X
D
fD;
^
h
o
; ^ r
o
g, (17)
which is expressed in a normalized form with respect to the
baseline design having uniform mass and stiffness proper-
ties (refer to Table 1). This is usually recommended in
order to improve the accuracy and efciency of the
numerical optimization process, and to make the model
valid for a variety of wind turbine congurations and
material of construction. The stiffness and inertia
^
K
y
;
^
I
N

are taken as preassigned parameters in the model

formulation.
The nal optimal design problem of the present
structural model is cast in the following:
Minimize the objective function : F ^ o ^ o

2
subject to mass equality constraint :
^
M
_
1
0
^ r
^
h d^ x 1
and the side constraints : X
L
pX
D
pX
U
, 18
where o* is the target frequency,
^
M is the dimensionless
structural mass of the tower and ^ r and
^
h are dened in
Table 1. X
L
and X
U
are the lower and upper limiting
values imposed on the design variables vector X
D
in order
to avoid having non-negative values or odd-shaped designs
in the attained optimum solutions. Approximate values of
the target frequencies are usually chosen to be within close
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Table 1
Denition of dimensionless quantities
Quantity Notation Dimensionless expression
Circular frequency o
^ o oH

r=G
_
Spatial coordinate x ^ x x=H
Tower Mean radius r ^ r r=r
b
Tower wall thickness h ^
h h=h
b
Tower torsional constant J ^
J J=J
b
^ r
3
^
h
Nacelle/rotor polar
moment of inertia
I
N
^
I
N
I
N
=rHJ
b
Yawing stiffness
coefcient
K
y
^
K
y
^ o
Ky
GJ
b
=H
Structural mass M ^
M
M
M
b
Baseline design parameters: M
b
structural mass 2pHr
b
h
b
, J
b
tor-
sional constant of tower cross section ( 2pr
b
3
h
b
), where r
b
mean
radius, h
b
wall thickness; ^ o
b
the circular frequency p/2.
Table 2
Frequency equation for the limiting conditions
Condition Reduced frequency equation
Locked yawing mechanism

^
K
y
! 1
a ^ o
^
J=
^
I
N
0
Uniform tower with no
taper (D 1; b 0)
Apply Eq. (15) with a tan ^ o
Stand-alone tapered tower
with no attached masses at
the top
^
I
N
0
3 x
2
3zx tan ^ o 3 ^ o zx
2
0
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1133
ranges; sometimes called frequency-windows; of those
corresponding to the reference baseline design, which
are adjusted to be far away from the critical exciting
yawing frequencies. The latter can be estimated from
statistical data analysis of the wind speed and direction
variation at the specic site in which the wind turbine will
be installed.
The above optimization problem described by Eq. (18)
may be thought as a search in the design space for a
point corresponding to the minimum value of the objec-
tive function and such that it lie within the region bounded
by subspaces representing the constraint functions. It
can be solved by a number of iterative techniques, such
as the sequential search methods [15,16], which have
received a great deal of attention and are the most
promising. A method, which has a wide applicability in
engineering applications, is the penalty function method in
which the original objective function FX
D
is augmented
with terms, called penalty terms, such that as X
D
approaches a constraint surface one term increases
indenitely. Since the algorithm seeks to minimize the
value of the objective function then it will try not to
penetrate any constraint surface. Thus all constraints are
taken into consideration by representing them by penalty
terms in the objective function expression. The most
commonly used interior penalty function [16] is cast in
the form
FX
D
; p FX
D
p

M
j1
1
G
j
X
D

, (19)
where F X
D
; p is the modied objective function and p
is a multiplier. A sequence of unconstrained minimization
problems is solved with successively decreasing values of p.
The MATLAB optimization Toolbox [16] offers routines
that implement the interior penalty function method via a
built-in function named fminsearch. Several other
computer program packages are available now for solving
the above design optimization model, which can be coded
to interact with structural and eigenvalue analyses software
[15,16].
5. Results and discussions
The developed mathematical model has been implemen-
ted for calculating the frequencies of typical wind rotor/
tower structure in free yawing motion. As has been
mentioned earlier, the target frequencies, at which the
yawing frequencies needed to be close to, depend on the
site characteristics and the specic conguration and
operating conditions of the wind turbine. Various cases
of study are examined including, tower alone and tower/
nacelle/rotor with both locked and unlocked yaw condi-
tions. The main features and trends in each case are
presented and discussed in this section.
5.1. Torsional frequencies of tower alone
It is useful to consider rst the case of stand-alone tower
with no tip mass. This case of study can be regarded as a
guide design condition with which the other conditions of
locked and unlocked yawing mechanism can be compared.
Fig. 2 shows the variation of the rst three dimensionless
natural frequencies with the tapering ratio of a tower in
torsional vibration. It is seen that the frequencies decrease
with increasing taper. Towers having complete conical
shapes shall have the maximum frequencies ^ o
1;max

4:4934 for D 0, which is favorable from structural
design point of view. However, such congurations
violate the requirement of having an adequate space at
the top of the tower for supporting the wind rotor/nacelle
combination.
In order to place the ith frequency at its desired value ^ o

i
,
the rst step is to calculate the dimensionless frequency ^ o
i
for known properties of the tower material and hub height,
and then obtain the corresponding value of the taper ratio
from the curves presented in Fig. 2. The next step is to
choose appropriate value for the dimensionless thickness
^
h
o
at the tower base and nd the corresponding radius of the
cross section ^ r
o
at the determined taper ratio (see Fig. 3),
which should satisfy the equality mass constraint given in
Eq. (18).
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Taper ratio,
T
o
r
s
i
o
n
a
l

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
i
e
s

Fig. 2. Dimensionless frequencies of stand-alone tower

^
M 1.
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Dimensionless wall thickness at base, h
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

r
a
d
i
u
s

a
t

b
a
s
e
,

r
=0.1
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
=1.0
Fig. 3. Optimized tapered towers with constant mass
^
M 1.
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1134
It is to be noted here that the wall thickness h
0
shall be
constrained to be greater than a preassigned lower bound,
which can either be determined from the minimum
available sheet thicknesses or from considerations of wall
instability that might happen by local buckling. On the other
hand, to insure the validity of wall thinness assumption, the
selected design point
^
h
o
; ^ r
o
should fall inside the feasible
domain dened by the upper left triangle of Fig. 3.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
0.00 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10
Taper ratio
0.00 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50 0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10
Taper ratio
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Taper ratio
Taper ratio
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o


r

b
a
s
e
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
Fig. 4. Frequency charts for the case of locked yawing mechanism,
^
M 1.
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1135
5.2. Frequency placement of combined tower/nacelle/rotor
structure
As has been mentioned before, the scope of this paper is
not just to apply an optimization algorithm to nd an
optimum solution, which may not be the needed global
solution. The main purpose, however, is to, rst, perform
accurate dynamic analysis in order to be able to pursue real
design optimization. Secondly, the behavior of the funda-
mental frequency of the combined tower/nacelle/rotor
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Taper ratio
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Taper ratio
Taper ratio
Taper ratio
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
Fig. 5. Frequency charts for unlocked yawing mechanism,
^
M 1.
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1136
structure in free yawing motion shall be identied
thoroughly by developing its actual level curves to see
how it is changed with the chosen design variables. Figs. 4ad
depict the required frequency charts for different values of
I
N
of a locked yawing mechanism. Several other cases will
be given in a more detailed technical report that will be
available at the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Research Center in Cairo, Egypt. It is seen from
the charts that the objective function is well behaved in the
selected design space D;
^
h
o
. Actually, the developed charts
represent the fundamental frequency function augmented
with the imposed mass equality constraint so that the
problem may be treated as if it were an unconstrained
optimization problem. The total mass is preserved at a
constant value equals to that of a known baseline design.
Now, it is possible to choose the desired frequency, which
is far away from the excitation frequencies, and obtain the
corresponding optimum variables directly from the devel-
oped frequency charts. More examination of these charts
indicates that almost all of them have shown a distinct
optimum zone which encompasses the global optimal
solution. As the rotor/nacelle inertia increases the attained
global optimum conguration changes from that one
having higher thickness at tower base with low tapering
ratio to a conguration with lower thickness and higher
tapering ratio. Design cases for unlocked yawing mechan-
ism are shown in Figs. 5ae, where practical values of the
dimensionless stiffness
^
K
y
have been adopted on a
logarithmic scale to cover a wide range of yawing
stiffnesses of actual wind turbines. A remarkable observa-
tion is that, as the yawing stiffness increases while keeping
the nacelle/rotor inertia at a constant value, the global
optimal solution moves from design points having higher
values of the tapering ratio to optimal designs with fewer
taper. Behavior for a xed value of the stiffness and
variable inertia has shown the same design trend of the
locked condition. The maximum attainable frequencies for
several design cases are summarized in Table 3. The
associated optimum values of the chosen design variables,
which satisfy the imposed mass equality constraint, are also
shown. As a remarkable observation, the frequency
increases for increasing yawing stiffness and decreasing
the nacelle/rotor inertia with a higher rate (Fig. 6).
6. Conclusions
Efcient model for placing frequencies of a combined
wind turbine tower/nacelle/rotor structure in free yawing
motion has been presented and discussed. The mathema-
tical procedure implemented, combined with exact Bessels
function solutions, resulted in a benecial tool that can be
used for nding the optimal frequency design of a real-
world wind turbine of any size, conguration and material
of construction. The model provides exact solutions to the
vibration frequencies and mode shapes, against which the
efciency of approximate methods, such as the nite
element method, may be judged. Design variables include
the tower tapering ratio, wall thickness and mean radius of
the tower cross section. Useful design charts for placing the
frequencies at their desired (target) values has been
developed for a prescribed total structural weight, and
known nacelle/rotor inertia and torsional stiffness of the
ARTICLE IN PRESS
0.0 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
Taper ratio
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s

a
t

t
o
w
e
r

b
a
s
e
Fig. 5. (Continued)
Table 3
Max. yawing frequency, ^ o
1;max
and the optimum design variables D;
^
h
o
; ^ r
o
with
^
M 1:0
^
I
N
^
K
y
0.001 0.01 0.1 1.0
0.01 3.1625 (0.6875, 0.6, 2.315) 0.9988 (0.8625,0.4625,2.489) 0.316 (1.0, 0.4, 2.5) 0.099 (1.0,0.5375,1.8605)
0.1 4.0663 (0.0875,1.1,2.49) 2.8328 (0.3,0.875,2.467) 0.9879 (1.0, 0.4, 2.5) 0.3137 (1.0, 0.4, 2.5)
1.0 4.0851 (0.075,1.1125,2.495) 3.476 (0.1875,0.9875,2.485) 2.2105 (0.4375,0.7375,2.497) 0.9036 (1.0, 0.4, 2.5)
10.0 4.0909 (0.075,1.1125,2.495) 3.5191 (0.175,1.0,2.4883) 2.4859 (0.375,0.8,2.474) 1.4122 (0.7625,0.5125,2.497)
(N) Locked 4.0915 (0.075,1.1125,2.495) 3.5241 (0.175,1.0,2.4883) 2.515 (0.375,0.8,2.474) 1.4995 (0.7,0.55,2.4907)
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1137
yawing mechanism. The fundamental frequencies can be
shifted sufciently from the range which resonates with the
excitation yawing frequencies. There are other factors that
ought to be considered in future investigations. For
example, the system response due to sudden yaw motion,
which may cause severe bending and shearing stresses
within the blades and tower structures, should be analyzed
and examined. Another natural extension of this work is to
optimize the performance of a wind machine by simulta-
neously minimizing vibration level and structural weight
using a multi-criteria optimization technique.
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ARTICLE IN PRESS
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
0.01 100 10 1 0.1
Dimensionless yawing stiffness, Ky.
M
a
x
.

f
u
n
d
a
m
e
n
t
a
l

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
D
i
m
e
n
s
i
o
n
l
e
s
s
)
I
N
=1.0
I
N
=0.1
I
N
=0.01
I
N
=0.001
Fig. 6. Variation of the maximum fundamental frequency with yawing
stiffness for different inertias of unlocked nacelle/rotor combination,

^
M 1:0.
K.Y. Maalawi / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 49 (2007) 11301138 1138