Animate a Wind Farm with MATLAB

A VRML model of a wind turbine, animated with MATLAB and Simulink 3D Animation.

Description

In this demo, we show how you can create the 3D visualization of a wind farm consisting of identical wind turbines in the ocean. Using the extrusion node in VRML, we model the complex 3D geometry of a blade. We use a NACA 0015 Thickness Form as the wing section of the blade, vary its size and orientation along its spine. By using other simple geometrical constructs in VRML, we model the hub and the tower. Grouping and replication of nodes enables the assembly of the wind turbine and then the wind farm. By using the Simulink 3D Animation API, we do a simple animation of the turbines from MATLAB.

The modeling of the blade geometry in VRML may also be of interest to aerospace engineers.

Please note that Simulink 3D Animation is required to run the demo.

The videos on how this was built from scratch is available under
"Green Energy Application Examples" section here:

http://www.mathworks.com/products/3d-animation/demos.html

Enhancements to the demo:
1. Adding realism to the 3D scene in this submission here:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28089

2. Fog effect for this demo is added in this submission here:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28091-animate-a-wind-farm-with-matlab-add-the-fog-effect

• Required Products: Simulink 3D Animation
• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.9 (2009b)

[Saurabh Mahapatra]

Enhacments to the demo:
1. Adding realism to the 3D scene in this submission here:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28089

2. Fog effect for this demo is added in this submission here:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28091-animate-a-wind-farm-with-matlab-add-the-fog-effect

[Saurabh Mahapatra]

A fellow reader asked a question about how to record the animation to AVI file since the buttons were inaccessible:

The code would simply be the addition of the following:
set(fig,'Record2D','on');
set(fig,'NavPanel','none');
set(world,'Recording','on');

just after the vrfigure command. See below:

world=vrworld('Wind_Turbine_Realism.wrl', 'new'); % change this
open(world);
fig=vrfigure(world);
set(fig, 'Headlight', 'off');
set(fig,'Record2D','on');
set(fig,'NavPanel','none');
set(world,'Recording','on');
blades_1=vrnode(world, 'Blades_1');
blades_2=vrnode(world, 'Blades_2');
blades_3=vrnode(world, 'Blades_3');

phase_1=0;
phase_2=pi/3;
phase_3=pi/6;

for theta=0:0.25:12*3*pi
    pause(0.001)
    blades_1.rotation=[0 0 1 phase_1-theta];
    blades_2.rotation=[0 0 1 phase_2-theta];
    blades_3.rotation=[0 0 1 phase_3-theta];
    vrdrawnow;
end

Also, use:

get(fig)

to access additional properties such as:

Record2D = 'off'
Record2DCompressMethod = 'auto'
Record2DCompressQuality = 75
Record2DFPS = 15
Record2DFileName = '%f_anim_%n.avi'

Documentation is here:

http://www.mathworks.de/access/helpdesk/help/toolbox/sl3d/f4-33836.html

[Saurabh Mahapatra]

Design Talk: Enhancing Simulation Studies with 3D Animation Article

http://www.ecnmag.com/Articles/2010/09/Design-Talk/Enhancing-Simulation-Studies-with-3D-Animation/

[Saurabh Mahapatra]

You can now follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/simulinkdude

[Erdal Bizkevelci]

 

[Mr Smart]

 

[Raghu]