Quick Start Guide
Follow this quick start guide to install and start QBlade-CE and have your first aero-hydro-servo-elastic simulation of the NREL 5MW wind turbine on the OC3 sparbuoy floater (see below) running in less than 5 minutes.
1. Download QBlade
2. Start QBlade
Windows
Starting QBlade on Windows is as simple as it gets, just double click on the QBladeCE.exe executable located in the QBlade folder.
Linux (tested on a fresh ubuntu 20.4 64bit)
The QBlade binary requires the qt-libraries to run. The XFoil binary requires the quadmath library. Both libraries can be installed using the following commands in the console:
sudo apt-get update -y
sudo apt-get install -y libqt5opengl5 libqt5xml5 libquadmath
From the console navigate to the unpacked QBlade directory – now you can start QBlade by executing the shell script run_qblade.sh with the following command
./run_qblade.sh
3. Load the Project File and Start the Simulation
Load a Project File
Once QBlade has started, load the project file “OC3_Simulation.qpr“, located in the /SampleProjects folder which is found in the QBlade folder. The open file dialog opens when clicking the “Load Project” button in the GUI.
Start the Simulation
After the project file has been loaded switch to the Simulation Module (1), by clicking the turbine icon. Once you are in the Simulation Module (1) start the simulation by clicking the Start Simulation (2) button. Now you can see in the GL View that the simulation is running. After the initial 20s of ramp-up time have passed data from the model is being recorded. Now you can investigate live simulation data such as power production, rotor thrust and other aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, or turbine performance parameters in the Graph View (3).
Check out the Documentation!
You want to find out what other functionality QBlade-CE has to offer and how to design and simulate your own models? Check out our extensive Documentation and Users Guide.
