This wind coupling example solution has been implemented in Mechanical APDL to illustrate how to perform an integrated analysis of a wind turbine with its supporting structure. In this solution procedure, both the structural code (that is, Mechanical APDL) and aeroelastic (e.g. Flex5 ) code are run simultaneously with continuous data exchange between the two programs at each time step. The data transfer is done through a set of interface routines that put or get data from a shared common data space. The interface is supplied in the form of a DLL which both the structural and aeroelastic programs will be accessing during an analysis. The example includes user-programmable functions, and a macro has been developed to facilitate the communication with the DLL from Mechanical APDL. Aeroelastic code developers will need to utilize the same set of routines to establish communications between their code and the DLL.

There is also a sequential coupling method available; see Sequential Coupled Wind Turbine Solution in Mechanical APDL in the Advanced Analysis Guide for more information about using that method.