scholarly journals Towards accurate and practical drone-based wind measurements with an ultrasonic anemometer

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1303-1318
Author(s):  
William Thielicke ◽  
Waldemar Hübert ◽  
Ulrich Müller ◽  
Michael Eggert ◽  
Paul Wilhelm
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Single Location ◽  
Ultrasonic Anemometer ◽  
Induced Flow ◽  
Air Speed

Abstract. Wind data collection in the atmospheric boundary layer benefits from short-term wind speed measurements using unmanned aerial vehicles. Fixed-wing and rotary-wing devices with diverse anemometer technology have been used in the past to provide such data, but the accuracy still has the potential to be increased. A lightweight drone for carrying an industry-standard precision sonic anemometer was developed. Accuracy tests have been performed with the isolated anemometer at high tilt angles in a calibration wind tunnel, with the drone flying in a large wind tunnel and with the full system flying at different heights next to a bistatic lidar reference. The propeller-induced flow deflects the air to some extent, but this effect is compensated effectively. The data fusion shows a substantial reduction of crosstalk (factor of 13) between ground speed and wind speed. When compared with the bistatic lidar in very turbulent conditions, with a 10 s averaging interval and with the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) constantly circling around the measurement volume of the lidar reference, wind speed measurements have a bias between −2.0 % and 4.2 % (root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 4.3 % to 15.5 %), vertical wind speed bias is between −0.05 and 0.07 m s−1 (RMSE of 0.15 to 0.4 m s−1), elevation bias is between −1 and 0.7∘ (RMSE of 1.2 to 6.3∘), and azimuth bias is between −2.6 and 7.2∘ (RMSE of 2.6 to 8.0∘). Key requirements for good accuracy under challenging and dynamic conditions are the use of a full-size sonic anemometer, a large distance between anemometer and propellers, and a suitable algorithm for reducing the effect of propeller-induced flow. The system was finally flown in the wake of a wind turbine, successfully measuring the spatial velocity deficit and downwash distribution during forward flight, yielding results that are in very close agreement to lidar measurements and the theoretical distribution. We believe that the results presented in this paper can provide important information for designing flying systems for precise air speed measurements either for short duration at multiple locations (battery powered) or for long duration at a single location (power supplied via cable). UAVs that are able to accurately measure three-dimensional wind might be used as a cost-effective and flexible addition to measurement masts and lidar scans.

scholarly journals Towards accurate and practical drone-based wind measurements with an ultrasonic anemometer

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Thielicke ◽  
Waldemar Hübert ◽  
Ulrich Müller
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Industry Standard ◽  
Single Location ◽  
Ultrasonic Anemometer ◽  
Absolute Bias ◽  
Air Speed

Abstract. Wind data collection in the atmospheric boundary layer benefits from short term wind speed measurements using unmanned aerial vehicles. Fixed and rotary wing devices with diverse anemometer technology have been used in the past to provide such data, but the accuracy still has the potential to be increased. We developed a light weight drone (weight including sensor  45 min) for carrying an industry standard precision sonic anemometer. Accuracy tests have been performed with the isolated anemometer at high tilt angles in a calibration wind tunnel, with the drone flying in a large wind tunnel, and with the full system flying at different heights next to a bistatic lidar reference. The propeller-induced flow deflects the air to some extent, but this effect is compensated effectively. Our data fusion shows no signs of crosstalk between ground speed and wind speed. When compared with the bistatic lidar in very turbulent conditions, with 10 seconds averaging interval and with the UAV constantly circling around the measurement volume of the lidar reference, wind speed measurements have an average absolute bias of 1.9 % (0.073 m s−1), wind elevation average absolute bias is 0.5°, and wind azimuth average absolute bias is 1.5°, indicating excellent accuracy under challenging and dynamic conditions. The system was finally flown in the wake of a wind turbine, successfully measuring the spatial velocity deficit distribution during forward flight, yielding results that are in very close agreement to lidar measurements and the theoretical distribution. We believe that the results presented in this paper can provide important information for designing flying systems for precise air speed measurements either for short duration at multiple locations (battery powered) or for long duration at a single location (power supplied via cable). UAVs that are able to accurately measure three-dimensional wind might be used as cost effective and flexible addition to measurement masts and lidar scans.

A new low-turbulence wind tunnel for bird flight experiments at Lund University, Sweden

1997 ◽  
Vol 200 (10) ◽  
pp. 1441-1449 ◽  
Author(s):  
C J Pennycuick ◽  
T Alerstam ◽  
A Hedenström
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Test Section ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Turbulence Level ◽  
Bird Flight ◽  
Contraction Ratio ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
Side Walls ◽  
Air Speed

A new wind tunnel for experiments on bird flight was completed at Lund University, Sweden, in September 1994. It is a closed-circuit design, with a settling section containing five screens and a contraction ratio of 12.25. The test section is octagonal, 1.20 m wide by 1.08 m high. The first 1.2 m of its length is enclosed by acrylic walls, and the last 0.5 m is open, giving unrestricted access. Experiments can be carried out in both the open and closed parts, and comparison between them can potentially be used to measure the lift effect correction. The fan is driven by an a.c. motor with a variable-frequency power supply, allowing the wind speed to be varied continuously from 0 to 38 m s-1. The whole machine can be tilted to give up to 8 ° descent and 6 ° climb. A pitot-static survey in the test section showed that the air speed was within ±1.3 % of the mean at 116 out of 119 sample points, exceeding this deviation at only three points at the edges. A hot-wire anemometer survey showed that the turbulence level in the closed part of the test section was below 0.04 % of the wind speed throughout most of the closed part of the test section, rising to approximately 0.06 % in the middle of the open part. No residual rotation from the fan could be detected in the test section. No decrease in wind speed was detectable beyond 3 cm from the side walls of the closed part, and turbulence was minimal beyond 10 cm from the walls. The installation of a safety net at the entrance to the test section increased the turbulence level by a factor of at least 30, to 1.2 % longitudinally and 1.0 % transversely.

WindSonic – a new ultrasonic anemometer

Sensor Review ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 218-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Stock
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Time Of Flight ◽  
Operating Principle ◽  
Air Velocity ◽  
Vector Measurement ◽  
Ultrasonic Technology ◽  
Ultrasonic Anemometer ◽  
Air Speed

Describes the developments of a small, robust ultrasonic wind speed and direction indicator. Gill’s patented ultrasonic technology is based on the time‐of‐flight operating principle, which provides vector measurement of air velocity, given the dimensions and geometry of pairs of transducers. In this case, two pairs of transducers are used such that the air velocity can be derived along orthogonal axes and hence the air speed and direction can be computed.

scholarly journals Field intercomparison of prevailing sonic anemometers

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Mauder ◽  
Matthias J. Zeeman
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Buoyancy Flux ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Horizontal Wind Speed ◽  
Sonic Anemometers ◽  
Adjacent Structures ◽  
Mean Wind Speed ◽  
Field Intercomparison

Abstract. Three-dimensional sonic anemometers are the core component of eddy covariance systems, which are widely used for micrometeorological and ecological research. In order to characterize the measurement uncertainty of these instruments we present and analyse the results from a field intercomparison experiment of six commonly used sonic anemometer models from four major manufacturers. These models include Campbell CSAT3, Gill HS-50 and R3, METEK uSonic-3 Omni, R. M. Young 81000 and 81000RE. The experiment was conducted over a meadow at the TERENO/ICOS site DE-Fen in southern Germany over a period of 16 days in June of 2016 as part of the ScaleX campaign. The measurement height was 3 m for all sensors, which were separated by 9 m from each other, each on its own tripod, in order to limit contamination of the turbulence measurements by adjacent structures as much as possible. Moreover, the high-frequency data from all instruments were treated with the same post-processing algorithm. In this study, we compare the results for various turbulence statistics, which include mean horizontal wind speed, standard deviations of vertical wind velocity and sonic temperature, friction velocity, and the buoyancy flux. Quantitative measures of uncertainty, such as bias and comparability, are derived from these results. We find that biases are generally very small for all sensors and all computed variables, except for the sonic temperature measurements of the two Gill sonic anemometers (HS and R3), confirming a known transducer-temperature dependence of the sonic temperature measurement. The best overall agreement between the different instruments was found for the mean wind speed and the buoyancy flux.

scholarly journals Method for airborne measurement of the spatial wind speed distribution above complex terrain

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-440
Author(s):  
Christian Ingenhorst ◽  
Georg Jacobs ◽  
Laura Stößel ◽  
Ralf Schelenz ◽  
Björn Juretzki
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Speed Increase ◽  
Airborne Measurement ◽  
Ultrasonic Anemometer ◽  
Mean Wind Speed

Abstract. Wind farm sites in complex terrain are subject to local wind phenomena, which have a relevant impact on a wind turbine's annual energy production. To reduce investment risk, an extensive site evaluation is therefore mandatory. Stationary long-term measurements are supplemented by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, which are a commonly used tool to analyse and understand the three-dimensional wind flow above complex terrain. Though under intensive research, such simulations still show a high sensitivity to various input parameters like terrain, atmosphere and numerical setup. In this paper, a different approach aims to measure instead of simulate wind speed deviations above complex terrain by using a flexible, airborne measurement system. An unmanned aerial vehicle is equipped with a standard ultrasonic anemometer. The uncertainty in the system is evaluated against stationary anemometer data at different heights and shows very good agreement, especially in mean wind speed (< 0.12 m s−1) and mean direction (< 2.4∘) estimation. A test measurement was conducted above a forested and hilly site to analyse the spatial and temporal variability in the wind situation. A position-dependent difference in wind speed increase of up to 30 % compared to a stationary anemometer is detected.

scholarly journals Wind speed measurements using distributed fiber optics: a windtunnel study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justus G. V. van Ramshorst ◽  
Miriam Coenders-Gerrits ◽  
Bart Schilperoort ◽  
Bas J. H. van de Wiel ◽  
Jonathan G. Izett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Fiber Optics ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Operational Conditions

Abstract. Near-surface wind speed is typically only measured by point observations. The Actively Heated Fiber-Optic (AHFO) technique, however, has the potential to provide high-resolution distributed observations of wind speeds, allowing for better characterization of fine-scale processes. Before AHFO can be widely used, its performance needs to be tested in a range of settings. In this work, experimental results on this novel observational wind-probing technique are presented. We utilized a controlled wind-tunnel setup to assess both the accuracy and the precision of AHFO under a range of operational conditions. The technique allows for wind speed characterization with a spatial resolution of 0.3 m on a 1 s time scale. The flow in the wind tunnel was varied in a controlled manner, such that the mean wind, ranged between 1 and 17 m/s. The AHFO measurements are compared to sonic anemometer measurements and show a high overall correlation (0.85–0.98). Both the precision and accuracy of the AHFO measurements were also greater than 95 %. We conclude that the AHFO has potential to be employed as an outdoor observational technique. It allows for characterization of spatially varying fields of mean wind in complex terrain, such as in canopy flows or in sloping terrain. In the future, the technique could be combined with conventional Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) for turbulent heat flux estimation in micrometeorological/hydrological applications.

scholarly journals Wind speed deviations in complex terrain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Ingenhorst ◽  
Georg Jacobs ◽  
Laura Stößel ◽  
Ralf Schelenz ◽  
Björn Juretzki
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Complex Terrain ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Airborne Measurement ◽  
Ultrasonic Anemometer ◽  
Mean Wind Speed ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Site Evaluation

Abstract. Wind farm sites within complex terrain are subject to local wind phenomena, which have a huge impact on a wind turbine's annual energy production. To reduce investment risk, an extensive site evaluation is therefore mandatory. Stationary long-term measurements are supplemented by CFD simulations, which are a commonly used tool to analyse and understand the three-dimensional wind flows above complex terrain. Though being under heavy research, such simulations still show a huge sensitivity for various input parameters like terrain, atmosphere and numerical setup. Within this paper, a different approach aims to measure instead of simulate wind speed deviations above complex terrain by using a flexible, airborne measurement system. An unmanned aerial vehicle is equipped with a standard ultrasonic anemometer. The uncertainty of the system is evaluated against stationary anemometer at different heights and shows very good agreement, especially in mean wind speed (

A predictive critical flutter wind speed modeling for long-span bridges

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1823-1837
Author(s):  
Kun Lin ◽  
Minghai Wei ◽  
Hongjun Liu ◽  
Huafeng Wang
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Wind Tunnel Tests ◽  
Long Span Bridges ◽  
Wind Speeds ◽  
Long Span ◽  
Aerodynamic Model ◽  
Proposed Model

In this article, a two-dimensional Lighthill aerodynamic model is first extended to three-dimensional space, and then combined with the larger Von Karman plate deformation theory, a model for predicting the critical flutter wind speeds of long-span bridges in the primary design is proposed. The predictions of the presented model are compared to the results of wind tunnel tests for five long-span bridges with different main girder section forms. After that, based on the proposed model, the effects of width to span ratio and thickness to span ratio on the critical flutter wind speeds of long-span bridges are investigated. The results show that the differences between the proposed model and wind tunnel tests are only 7%–14%. Therefore, the presented model can assess the flutter wind speed in preliminary design stages of a bridge. The results also reveal that width to span ratios between 1/30 and 1/10 and thickness to span ratios between 1/300 and 1/100 are optimal for long-span bridges.

scholarly journals Recovery of the three-dimensional wind and sonic temperature data from a physically deformed sonic anemometer

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5981-6002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinhua Zhou ◽  
Qinghua Yang ◽  
Xiaojie Zhen ◽  
Yubin Li ◽  
Guanghua Hao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Sonic Anemometer ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Post Processing ◽  
Time Saving ◽  
Ultrasonic Signals ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Recovery Approach ◽  
Correct Data

Abstract. A sonic anemometer reports three-dimensional (3-D) wind and sonic temperature (Ts) by measuring the time of ultrasonic signals transmitting along each of its three sonic paths, whose geometry of lengths and angles in the anemometer coordinate system was precisely determined through production calibrations and the geometry data were embedded into the sonic anemometer operating system (OS) for internal computations. If this geometry is deformed, although correctly measuring the time, the sonic anemometer continues to use its embedded geometry data for internal computations, resulting in incorrect output of 3-D wind and Ts data. However, if the geometry is remeasured (i.e., recalibrated) and to update the OS, the sonic anemometer can resume outputting correct data. In some cases, where immediate recalibration is not possible, a deformed sonic anemometer can be used because the ultrasonic signal-transmitting time is still correctly measured and the correct time can be used to recover the data through post processing. For example, in 2015, a sonic anemometer was geometrically deformed during transportation to Antarctica. Immediate deployment was critical, so the deformed sonic anemometer was used until a replacement arrived in 2016. Equations and algorithms were developed and implemented into the post-processing software to recover wind data with and without transducer-shadow correction and Ts data with crosswind correction. Post-processing used two geometric datasets, production calibration and recalibration, to recover the wind and Ts data from May 2015 to January 2016. The recovery reduced the difference of 9.60 to 8.93 ∘C between measured and calculated Ts to 0.81 to −0.45 ∘C, which is within the expected range, due to normal measurement errors. The recovered data were further processed to derive fluxes. As data reacquisition is time-consuming and expensive, this data-recovery approach is a cost-effective and time-saving option for similar cases. The equation development can be a reference for related topics.

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