Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Wind Turbine Aerodynamics
Part B: Turbine Blade Flow Fields
Scott Schreck, Ph.D.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Golden, Colorado
Introduction
As summarized previously in Part A of this chapter, field testing of the Mod-0, Mod-1,
and Mod-2 horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) during the 1980's produced unique mea-
surements of structural and aerodynamic loads not previously available. Analyses of Mod-
series data in connection with contemporary aerodynamic models suggested that anomalous
wind turbine aerodynamics events were prominent. However, the aerodynamics models then
available were not capable of resolving turbine flow field details to the extent required to dis-
sect these phenomena. Sufficiently detailed aerodynamics measurements were impractical
because of the large scale of the Mod-series turbines, which encompassed rotor diameters
from 38.1 m (Mod-0) to 97.5 m (Mod-5B).
To address these limitations, efforts began in the early 1990s to acquire highly resolved
structural and aerodynamic load measurements in field tests of turbines having rotor diam-
eters in the 10 m to 20 m range. Concurrent testing at the Netherlands Energy Research
Foundation and the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), Mie University (Ja-
pan), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (United States), Risø Wind Turbine Test Sta-
tion (Denmark), Imperial College (United Kingdom), and the Center for Renewable Energy
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