Correction: Transition characteristics measured on a 2MW 80m diameter wind turbine rotor in comparison with transition data from wind tunnel measurements

The engineering of wind turbines is not fully mature. There are still phenomena, particularly dynamic stall that cannot be accurately modeled. Dynamic stall contributes to fatigue stress and premature failure in many turbine components. The three dimensionality of dynamic stall make these structures unique for wind turbines. Currently flow visualization of dynamic stall on a wind turbine rotor has not been achieved, but these visualizations can reveal a great deal about the structures that contribute to dynamic stall. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is a powerful experimental technique that can take non-intrusive flow measurements of planar flow simultaneously. High-speed cameras enable time resolved PIV can reveal the transient development. This technique is suited to gain a better understanding of dynamic stall. A custom 3.27 m diameter wind turbine has been built to allow such measurements on the blade. The camera is mounted on the hub and will take measurements within the rotating domain. Mirrors are used so that laser illumination rotates with the blade. The wind turbine will operate in controlled conditions provided by a large wind tunnel. High-speed pressure data acquisition will be used in conjunction with PIV to get an understanding of the forces associated with the flow structures. Many experiments will be made possible by this apparatus. First the flow structures responsible for the forces can be identified. Quantitative measurements of the flow field will identify the development of the stall vortex. The quantified flow structures can be used to verify and improve models. The spatial resolution of PIV can map the three dimensional structure in great detail. The experimental apparatus is independent of the blade geometry; as such multiple blades can be used to identify the effect of blade geometry. Finally flow control research in the field of aviation can be applied to control dynamic stall. These experiments will be subject of much of the future work at the University of Waterloo. Potentially this work will unlock the secrets of dynamic stall and improve the integrity of wind turbines.

Download Full-text

Effects of Inflow Shear on Wake Characteristics of Wind-Turbines over Flat Terrain

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13143745 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 3745 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Takanori Uchida

Keyword(s):

Wind Tunnel ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Turbine Rotor ◽

Wind Tunnel Experiment ◽

Scale Model ◽

Speed Ratio ◽

Flat Terrain ◽

Wind Turbine Rotor ◽

Wake Characteristics

The scope of the present study was to understand the wake characteristics of wind-turbines under various inflow shears. First, in order to verify the prediction accuracy of the in-house large-eddy simulation (LES) solver, called RIAM-COMPACT, based on a Cartesian staggered grid, we conducted a wind-tunnel experiment using a wind-turbine scale model and compared the numerical and experimental results. The total number of grid points in the computational domain was about 235 million. Parallel computation based on a hybrid LES/actuator line (AL) model approach was performed with a new SX-Aurora TSUBASA vector supercomputer. The comparison between wind-tunnel experiment and high-resolution LES results showed that the AL model implemented in the in-house LES solver in this study could accurately reproduce both performances of the wind-turbine scale model and flow characteristics in the wake region. Next, with the LES solver developed in-house, flow past the entire wind-turbine, including the nacelle and the tower, was simulated for a tip-speed ratio (TSR) of 4, the optimal TSR. Three types of inflow shear, N = 4, N = 10, and uniform flow, were set at the inflow boundary. In these calculations, the calculation domain in the streamwise direction was very long, 30.0 D (D being the wind-turbine rotor diameter) from the center of the wind-turbine hub. Long-term integration of t = 0 to 400 R/Uin was performed. Various turbulence statistics were calculated at t = 200 to 400 R/Uin. Here, R is the wind-turbine rotor radius, and Uin is the wind speed at the hub-center height. On the basis of the obtained results, we numerically investigated the effects of inflow shear on the wake characteristics of wind-turbines over a flat terrain. Focusing on the center of the wind-turbine hub, all results showed almost the same behavior regardless of the difference in the three types of inflow shear.

Download Full-text