Co Blade Overview - nnmrec/Co-Blade GitHub Wiki

Co-Blade: Software for Analysis and Design of Composite Blades Co-Blade Overview:

Co-Blade is an open source software that can be used for the structural analysis and design of composite blades for wind and hydrokinetic turbines. The objective of Co-Blade is to help designers accelerate the preliminary design phase by providing the capabilities to quickly analyze alternative composite layups and to study their effects on composite blade properties, deformations, and material stresses and strains.

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In summary, the Co-Blade software contains many features:

Realistic Modeling of Composite Blades
    nearly arbitrary topology & material properties
Computation of Structural Properties
    offsets: center-of-mass, tension-center, & shear-center
    inertias: mass & mass moments of inertia
    stiffnesses: axial, bending, & torsional
    principal axes: inertial, centroidal, & elastic principal axes
    modal analysis: coupled mode shapes & frequencies (via integration w/ BModes)
Structural Analysis
    nearly arbitrary applied aerodynamic forces & moments
    computation of body forces (centrifugal, weight, & buoyancy)
    computation of load induced blade deflections, lamina-level stresses & strains, & panel buckling stresses
Optimization of Composite Layup
    For a given external blade shape & design load, Co-Blade can determine an optimal composite layup which minimizes blade mass while simultaneously satisfying constraints on maximum stress, buckling, deflection, & placement of natural frequencies
Graphical Post-Processing
    A large variety of 2D & 3D visualizations can be created through a graphical user interface to provide instant visual feedback

Showcase:

On the Showcases page, you can see some examples of screenshots from the Co-Blade code. Code & Documentation:

Obtain the latest version of Co-Blade and user’s guide on the Downloads page. Co-Blade source code is available on the Source page and can be checked out with Subversion. The modal analysis capabilities of Co-Blade also require the BModes v3.00.00 code. If using the compiled version of Co-Blade, you will also need to install the MATLAB Compiler Runtime v7.16, available on the Downloads page. Also, be sure to visit the Co-Blade Discussion Forum to have discussions and ask questions related to the code. Collaboration:

Co-Blade is an open source project aimed at developing user friendly software for the analysis and design of composite blades for wind and hydrokinetic turbines. If you are interested in becoming a contributor to the Co-Blade project (either through modifying the code, adding new features, validating Co-Blade results, or anything else you are interested in) please feel free to contact me, I am happy to discuss possible collaborations.