WIND ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES OFFICE
Two Wind Energy Productivity Software Programs Upgraded

Two WETO-funded wind energy software programs have received important upgrades.

Sandia National Laboratories has released a new version of Numerical Manufacturing and Design, or NuMAD, a software tool for the structural design and modeling of wind turbine blades. NuMAD version 3.0 simplifies the process of creating a 3D model of a wind turbine blade and manages all blade information, including aerodynamic properties, material properties, and material placement.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) Version 3.0, a major redesign and enhancement of the FLORIS wind farm controls software. Improvements include faster computation speeds, improved models of wind farm wakes and control strategies for large offshore wind farms, and the ability to model up to three different kinds of wind turbines in the same graphic with a 3D representation of varied wind speeds and directions.