Regular Article

Conceptual design methodology for the preliminary study of a mechatronic system: application to wind turbine system

¹ QUARTZ EA7393, SUPMECA-Paris, 3 rue Fernand Hainaut, 93407 Saint-Ouen, France
² Mechanics, Modelling and Production Research Laboratory, National School of Engineers of Sfax, University of Sfax, BP. 1173, Sfax 3038, Tunisia

^* e-mail: hamza.ghazoi@gmail.com

Received: 14 November 2016
Accepted: 4 April 2017

Abstract

This paper deals with a methodology for the preliminary design of a mechatronic system regarding the vibrational aspects using analytical approach with Modelica/Dymola. In fact, today, the most commonly used approach for modeling the vibrational behavior of a system is the finite element method. This method is effective however; it is very costly in computation time and space memory and not allows analyzing the whole mechatronic system because of the large number of components to be integrated. The main purpose of this work is to create compact analytical models and especially flexible beams in Modelica/Dymola. These elements can be thereafter inserted in a mechatronic system in order to study its vibrational aspects. The proposed approach aimed to highlight the importance of the structure analysis from the early stage of design and how the developed models allow a fast modeling. Our proposed approach is illustrated for the wind turbine system. In order to predict the motion and the deformation of the flexible system, the derived model considers the structural dynamics of the system and includes the dynamic coupling between the subcomponents. Selected simulation results have been presented to validate the model with respect to scientific reference case. The correctness of the results has been also ascertained by a comparison with those obtained by the finite element analysis using ABAQUS and with those obtained by the model based on the Beam component which belongs to the Modelica Flexible Bodies Library.