scholarly journals On the Determination of the Aerodynamic Damping of Wind Turbines Using the Forced Oscillations Method in Wind Tunnel Experiments

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Fontecha ◽  
Frank Kemper ◽  
Markus Feldmann
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Forced Oscillations ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Wind Tunnel Experiments ◽  
Aerodynamic Damping ◽  
Safe Side ◽  
Reynolds Number Effects

The development of wind turbine technology has led to higher and larger wind turbines with a higher sensitivity to dynamic effects. One of these effects is the aerodynamic damping, which introduces favorable damping forces in oscillating wind turbines. These forces play an important role in the turbine lifetime, but have not yet been studied systematically in detail. Consequently, this paper studies the plausibility of determining the aerodynamic damping of wind turbines systematically through wind tunnel experiments using the forced oscillation method. To this end, a 1:150 scale model of a prototype wind turbine has been fabricated considering Reynolds number effects on the blades through XFOIL calculations and wind tunnel measurements of airfoil 2D-section models. The resulting tower and wind turbine models have been tested for different operation states. The tower results are approximate and show low aerodynamic damping forces that can be neglected on the safe side. The measured aerodynamic damping forces of the operating turbine are compared to existing analytic approaches and to OpenFAST simulations. The measured values, although generally larger, show good agreement with the calculated ones. It is concluded that wind tunnel forced oscillations experiments could lead to a better characterization of the aerodynamic damping of wind turbines.

scholarly journals A 6-DOFs Hardware-in-the-Loop System for Wind Tunnel Tests of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Fontanella ◽  
Ilmas Bayati ◽  
Federico Taruffi ◽  
Francesco La Mura ◽  
Alan Facchinetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Hardware In The Loop ◽  
Floating Platform ◽  
Wind Tunnel Tests ◽  
Offshore Wind Turbines ◽  
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract This article presents a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) methodology developed at Politecnico di Milano (PoliMi) to perform wind tunnel tests on floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). The 6-DOFs HIL setup is presented, focusing on the main differences with respect to a previous 2-DOFs system. Aerodynamic, rotor and control related loads, physically reproduced by the wind turbine scale model, must be measured in real-time and integrated with the platform numerical model. These forces contribute to couple wind turbine and floating platform dynamics and their correct reproduction is of fundamental importance for the correct simulation of the floating system behavior. The procedure developed to extract rotor loads from the available measurements is presented, discussing its limitations and the possible uncertainties introduced in the results. Results from verification tests in no-wind conditions are presented and analyzed to identify the main uncertainty sources and quantify their effect on the reproduction of the floating wind turbine response to combined wind and waves.

Uncertainty Analysis in a Scale Model Wind Turbine Array Boundary Layer

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Turner ◽  
Martin Wosnik
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Turbulent Boundary Layer ◽  
Uncertainty Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Test Section ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Acquisition Time ◽  
Flow Physics

Uncertainty estimates from an experimental investigation of a scale model wind turbine array, conducted with (on the order of) 100 0.25 meter diameter model wind turbines in a high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layer facility, are reported. An expanded uncertainty analysis using the Taylor series method is executed to predict uncertainty for the system of interest in the mean flow. A workable comprise has been found for data acquisition time mitigating changing initial conditions due to exposure to atmospheric conditions and temperature drift. The study was conducted in the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Flow Physics Facility (FPF) which is the worlds largest flow physics quality turbulent boundary layer wind tunnel, with test section dimensions of 6 m wide, 2.7 m tall and 72 m long. Naturally grown turbulent boundary layers with scale ratios of energy-containing to dissipative scales (Karman number) of up to 20,000 can be generated, and are on the order of 1 m thick near the downstream end of the test section. The long fetch of the facility offers unique opportunities to study the downstream evolution of the wake of single wind turbines, and the flow through model wind turbine arrays over long distances. Far downstream within a wind farm it is proposed that the farm reaches a fully developed state where the flow field becomes similar from one row to the next. The goal of this work is to accurately determine the uncertainty associated with open to atmosphere wind tunnel data for use in validation of numerical models regarding the fully developed wind turbine array boundary layer.

scholarly journals UNAFLOW: a holistic experiment about the aerodynamics of floating wind turbines under imposed surge motion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Fontanella ◽  
Ilmas Bayati ◽  
Robert Mikkelsen ◽  
Marco Belloli ◽  
Alberto Zasso
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Unsteady Aerodynamics ◽  
Model Tests ◽  
Tip Vortex ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Floating Wind Turbine ◽  
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines ◽  
Sectional Model

Abstract. Floating offshore wind turbines are subjected to large motions because of the additional degrees of freedom offered by the floating foundation. The rotor operates in highly dynamic inflow conditions and this is deemed to have a significant effect on the aerodynamic loads, as well as on the wind turbine wake. Floating wind turbines and floating farms are designed by means of numerical tools, that have to model these unsteady aerodynamic phenomena to be predictive of reality. Experiments are needed to get a deeper understanding of the unsteady aerodynamics, and hence leverage this knowledge to develop better models, as well as to produce data for the validation and calibration of the existing tools. This paper presents a wind-tunnel scale-model experiment about the unsteady aerodynamics of floating wind turbines that followed a radically different approach than the other existing experiments. The experiment covered any aspect of the problem in a coherent and structured manner, that allowed to produce a low-uncertainty data for the validation of numerical model. The data covers the unsteady aerodynamics of the floating wind turbine in terms of blade forces, rotor forces and wake. 2D sectional model tests were carried to study the aerodynamics of a low-Reynolds blade profile subjected to a harmonic variation of the angle of attack. The lift coefficient shows an hysteresis cycle that extends in the linear region and grows in strength for higher motion frequencies. The knowledge gained in 2D sectional model tests was exploited to design the rotor of a 1/75 scale model of the DTU 10MW that was used to perform imposed surge motion tests in a wind tunnel. The tower-top forces were measured for several combinations of mean wind speed, surge amplitude and frequency to assess the effect of unsteady aerodynamics on the response of the system. The thrust force, that plays a crucial role in the along-wind dynamics of a floating wind turbine mostly follows the quasi-steady theory. The near-wake of the wind turbine was studied by means of hot-wire measurements, and PIV was utilized to visualize the tip vortex. It is seen that the wake energy is increased in correspondence of the motion frequency and this is likely to be associated with the blade-tip vortex, which travel speed is modified in presence of surge motion.

Control of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Reduced-Order Modeling and Real-Time Implementation for Wind Tunnel Tests

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Fontanella ◽  
Ilmas Bayati ◽  
Marco Belloli
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Offshore Wind ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
System Response ◽  
Wind Tunnel Tests ◽  
Reduced Order ◽  
Offshore Wind Turbines ◽  
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

The present work deals with the implementation of a variable-speed variable-pitch control strategy on a wind turbine scale model for hybrid/HIL wind tunnel tests on floating offshore wind turbines. The effects that scaling issues, due to low-Reynolds aerodynamics and rotor structural properties, have in combination with the HIL technique developed by the authors are studied through a dedicated reduced-order linear coupled model. The model is used to tune the original pitch controller gains so to be able to reproduce the system response of the full-scale floating wind turbine during HIL tests.

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

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 3745 ◽  
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.

Statistical Analysis of Component Failures: A 16 Year Survey on More Than 550 Wind Turbines

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Ferrari ◽  
Guido Soldi ◽  
Alessandro Bianchini ◽  
Enzo Dalpane
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Good Prediction ◽  
Component Failure ◽  
Machine Age ◽  
Detailed Survey ◽  
Maintenance Program ◽  
Component Failures

A good prediction of the failure ratio of wind turbine (WT) components is pivotal to define a correct maintenance program and reduce the downtime periods. Even a small failure can lead to long downtime periods and high repairing costs. The installation sites, which generally have limited accessibility, and the necessity of special facilities to reach the components inside the nacelle, also play a key role in the correct management of WTs. In this study, a detailed survey on the failures occurred to the WTs managed by the Italian operator “e2i energie speciali” (more than 550 machines) over 16 years was performed and the results were analyzed in detail. Each failure was classified by considering the damaged component and the related downtime period. The analysis allowed the determination of several useful results such as the trend of failure occurrence with machine age and the identification of components and macrocomponents which are more critical in terms of both number of occurrences and downtime periods. The combination of component failure occurrences and related downtime periods was also computed to estimate which component is most critical for WT operation.

Development and Validation of a CFD Technique for the Aerodynamic Analysis of HAWT

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gómez-Iradi ◽  
R. Steijl ◽  
G. N. Barakos
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Wind Tunnel Test ◽  
Unsteady Aerodynamics ◽  
Tunnel Wall ◽  
Local Flow ◽  
Flow Angle ◽  
Thrust And Torque

This paper demonstrates the potential of a compressible Navier–Stokes CFD method for the analysis of horizontal axis wind turbines. The method was first validated against experimental data of the NREL/NASA-Ames Phase VI (Hand, et al., 2001, “Unsteady Aerodynamics Experiment Phase, VI: Wind Tunnel Test Configurations and Available Data Campaigns,” NREL, Technical Report No. TP-500-29955) wind-tunnel campaign at 7 m/s, 10 m/s, and 20 m/s freestreams for a nonyawed isolated rotor. Comparisons are shown for the surface pressure distributions at several stations along the blades as well as for the integrated thrust and torque values. In addition, a comparison between measurements and CFD results is shown for the local flow angle at several stations ahead of the wind turbine blades. For attached and moderately stalled flow conditions the thrust and torque predictions are fair, though improvements in the stalled flow regime are necessary to avoid overprediction of torque. Subsequently, the wind-tunnel wall effects on the blade aerodynamics, as well as the blade/tower interaction, were investigated. The selected case corresponded to 7 m/s up-wind wind turbine at 0 deg of yaw angle and a rotational speed of 72 rpm. The obtained results suggest that the present method can cope well with the flows encountered around wind turbines providing useful results for their aerodynamic performance and revealing flow details near and off the blades and tower.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document