Estimating the angle of attack from blade pressure measurements on the NREL Phase VI rotor using a free wake vortex model: axial conditions

Blade element momentum (BEM) methods are still the most common methods used for predicting the aerodynamic loads during the aeroelastic design of wind turbine blades. However, their accuracy is limited by the availability of reliable aerofoil data. Owing to the 3D nature of the flow over wind turbine blades, the aerofoil characteristics will vary considerably from the 2D aerofoil characteristics, especially at the inboard sections of the blades. Detailed surface pressure measurements on the blade surfaces may be used to derive more realistic aerofoil data. However, in doing so, knowledge of the angle of attack distributions is required. This study presents a method in which a free wake vortex model is used to derive such distributions for the NREL Phase VI wind turbine under different operating conditions. The derived free wake geometry solutions are plotted together with the corresponding wake circulation distribution. These plots provide better insight into how circulation formed at the blades is eventually diffused into the wake. The free wake model is described and its numerical behaviour is examined. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

预弯对10MW级风力机叶片气动特性的影响

为分析预弯处理对10 MW级风力机叶片气动特性的影响,以DTU 10 MW风力机为例,采用CFD数值模拟方法,研究均匀来流不同风速下风力机的输出功率,并与BEM计算结果进行对比。同时,对比分析直叶片和预弯叶片风力机的功率特性、沿展向出力分布、沿展向不同截面翼型的流动特性。研究结果表明,直叶片各截面翼型的压力差较预弯叶片的大,做功能力较强。预弯通过对叶片的三维流动产生扰动,进而影响风力机的输出功率,且主要体现在叶片展向70%~90%的位置。研究成果可为风力机叶片气动性能的设计与优化提供参考。     

小型变桨距风力机的气动优化设计

基于叶素动量理论分析了小型风力机的气动性能分析模型,并提出了叶片的气动优化设计方法.结合叶片制造和应用中的实际要求,设计了10 kW小型变桨距风力机叶片的气动外形.计算结果表明,设计叶片具有良好的气动性能,验证了该设计方法有效实用.     

基于一种新的优化方法的水平轴风力机风轮设计软件

提出了一种用于水平轴风机风轮设计的软件。该软件的主要目的是为风力机设计者提供一种灵活的集成设计环境，其核心是一个水平轴风机的气动优化过程。该过程基于一种改进的叶素理论，它采用一个有限叶片的旋涡系，因此叶片数量的影响被考虑进行并可得到更精确的气动力。     

A CFD study into the influence of unsteady aerodynamic interference on wind turbine surge motion

To improve knowledge of the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics and interference effects of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT), this article focuses on the platform surge motion of a full configuration wind turbine with the rotating blades, hub, nacelle, and tower shapes. Unsteady aerodynamic analyses considering the moving motion of an entire configuration wind turbine have been conducted using an advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a conventional blade element momentum (BEM) analyses. The present CFD simulation is based on an advanced overset moving grid method to accurately consider the local and global motion of a three-dimensional wind turbine. The effects of various oscillation frequencies and amplitudes of the platform surge motion have been widely investigated herein. Three-dimensional unsteady flow fields around the moving wind turbine with rotating blades are graphically presented in detail. Complex flow interactions among blade tip vortices, tower shedding vortices, and turbulent wakes are physically observed. Comparisons of different aerodynamic analyses under the periodic surge motions are summarized to show the potential distinction among applied numerical methods. The present result indicates that the unsteady aerodynamic thrust and power tend to vary considerably depending on the oscillation frequency and amplitude of the surge motion.     

A practical approach for selecting optimum wind rotors

The main objective of this paper is to categorize practical families of horizontal-axis wind turbine rotors, which are optimized to produce the largest possible power output. Refined blade geometry is obtained from the best approximation of the calculated theoretical optimum chord and twist distributions of the rotating blade. The mathematical formulation is based on dimensionless quantities so as to make the aerodynamic analysis valid for any arbitrary turbine models having different rotor sizes and operating at different wind regimes. The selected design parameters include the number of blades, type of airfoil section and the blade root offset from hub center. The effects of wind shear as well as tower shadow are also examined. A computer program has been developed to automate the overall analysis procedures, and several numerical examples are given showing the variation of the power and thrust coefficients with the design tip speed ratio for various rotor configurations.     

A wind turbine blade profile analysis code based on the singularities method

The aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbines are closely related to the geometry of their blade profiles. The innovation and the technological development of wind turbine blade profiles can be centred on two tendencies. The first is to improve the shape of the existing airfoils and the second is to design new shapes of airfoils in order to get some more ambitious aerodynamic characteristics and enhanced performance.The aim of this paper is to develop an accurate airfoil analysis lower order code, based on the singularities method, for wind turbine applications. The 2D incompressible potential flow model has been used. In the implementation of the singularities method, source–vortex distributions over the airfoil contour are used to compute the flow characteristics. The accuracy and the validity of the results have been tested using experimental data obtained from Wind Turbine Airfoil Catalogue “Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark, August 2001” and have shown considerable agreement.     

前缘结节对风力机气动性能影响的数值研究

基于座头鲸的鱼鳍前缘结节的流动特性,开展前缘结节对改造的Phase Ⅵ仿生风力机叶片性能及流动特性影响的数值研究。结果表明：在设计工况下（V_∞=10 m/s）,结节放置在叶片展向81%位置时,叶片根部的回流区域消除,但结节处的旋涡扰动会破坏叶片稳定流动,使叶片性能相对较低。在高风速下（V_∞=15、20、25 m/s）,由于前缘结节的结构特征,叶片表面产生旋涡,发生阻塞作用,叶片吸力侧压力减小,叶片正背面压差增大,升力增大,进而使仿生叶片的性能得到提升。     

风力机叶片动态气弹变形及其对整机性能的影响

基于风力机整机刚柔耦合模型,文章提出了一种叶片动态气弹扭转变形分析的新方法。该方法采用SIMPACK和AeroDyn软件联合数值仿真对风力机在几种恶劣风况下进行动力学分析,通过对分析结果的变换处理,进而得到叶片在复杂工况下的动态气弹变形数据。采用该方法,重点分析了叶片气弹扭转变形对风力机气动功率及气弹稳定性的影响。该方法为大型风电叶片的气弹特性评价以及气弹剪裁设计提供了一种新的技术手段。     

兆瓦级H型垂直轴风力发电机气动设计方案的数值模拟研究

为解决兆瓦级H型垂直轴风力发电机气动设计过程中实验和数值模拟方面耗费巨大的问题,基于升力线模拟方法完成了兆瓦级H型垂直轴风力发电机的气动设计,并利用该方法研究不同垂直轴风力机翼型设计方案对整机气动性能的影响,研究结果表明:基元翼型选用NACA0015和NACA0018对称翼型能够获得更高的风能利用率;整机叶片造型方案中,前掠翼型性能优于直叶片,前掠翼型方案的最大风能利用率随掠角增大而小幅上升,完整旋转周期内的风能利用率则随掠角增加先增大后减小,且在掠角3°时可取到整体最大风能利用率;后掠翼型性能差于直叶片,风能利用系数随掠角增大而减小;前掠与后掠组合翼型方案性能稍好于直叶片,但不如前掠叶片;不同方案之间存在性能差异的原因可能在于不同翼型的叶片分离涡在竖直方向上的旋涡脱落顺序方面存在差异,其中上部较早脱落的前掠方案有助于风能利用系数提升,下部较早脱落的后掠方案则会对风能利用系数产生负面影响。     

Demonstrating that power and instantaneous loads are decoupled in a vertical‐axis wind turbine

The flow in the meridian plane of a high aspect ratio vertical‐axis wind turbine (VAWT) can be described as two dimensional. The wake that is generated by the VAWT in a two‐dimensional flow consists of shed vorticity and is a result of the temporal variation of bound circulation on the blades, following Kelvin's theorem. The strength and location of the vorticity that is produced by the VAWT in a two‐dimensional flow are thus independent of the average bound circulation on the blade. Two independent computational models—a potential flow panel model and a method that is based on the vorticity–velocity formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations—have been used to show that the VAWT can produce the same power for different azimuthal distributions of the blade aerodynamic loading. It is thus demonstrated that the instantaneous blade aerodynamic loading and the power conversion of a VAWT are decoupled. This observation has, potentially, significant impact on the design of the VAWT and reopens the research on asymmetric blade shapes in order to optimize the performance of this turbine configuration. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

三维低雷诺数叶片参数化方法研究

叶片参数化是叶轮机械气动优化过程中十分重要的一个环节,它决定着叶片的气动优化空间。传统叶片是通过叶片几何或特征来实现参数化,很少利用气动参数来实现。为了解决该问题,提出一种基于气动参数的三维叶片参数化方法,该方法通过经验公式将气动参数引入叶片参数化过程,并利用几个重要截面中的两条重要特征曲线（中弧线和厚度分布曲线）实现叶片重构。通过对实际叶片进行参数化可以发现：参数化后叶片与原始叶片之间的几何相对误差最大不超过0.01;两者表面压力系数变化趋势基本一致。因此,该方法不仅能够准确描述三维叶片形状,还将气动参数直接设置为优化控制变量,从而有利于优化效率的提高。     

Design and performance of a double-pitch wind turbine with non-twisted blades

A new design has been proposed for inexpensive wind turbine blades with high power coefficients.The new wind turbine blade has been subdivided into two, each with a different pitch angle, to optimise aerodynamic flow, absence of twist, and carries a variable chord along the blade itself.The new blade reveals some energy loss due to the tip vortices of each blade part (which can be minimised by winglets), yet proves that it is possible to create a wind turbine with high power coefficients.To design and evaluate the performance of the new wind turbine a numerical code, developed by the authors and based on blade element momentum theory, was implemented after validation by experimental measurement found in scientific literature. The code led to better choices of layout to maximise turbine performance.     

Determination of the angle of attack on rotor blades

Two simple methods for determining the angle of attack (AOA) on a section of a rotor blade are proposed. Both techniques consist of employing the Biot–Savart integral to determine the influence of the bound vorticity on the velocity field. In the first technique, the force distribution along the blade and the velocity at a monitor point in the vicinity of the blade are assumed to be known from experiments or CFD computations. The AOA is determined by subtracting the velocity induced by the bound circulation, determined from the loading, from the velocity at the monitor point. In the second method, the full pressure distribution on the blade is assumed to be known and used to determine the local distribution of circulation along the surface contour of the blade. Using the local distribution of circulation to determine the influence of the bound vorticity enables the velocity monitor points to be located closer to the blade, and thus to determine the AOA with higher accuracy. Data from CFD computations for flows past the Tellus 95 kW wind turbine at different wind speeds are used to test both techniques. Comparisons show that the proposed methods are in good agreement with existing techniques. The advantage of the proposed techniques, as compared with existing techniques, is that they can be used to determine the AOA on rotor blades under general flow conditions (e.g. operations in yaw or with dynamic inflow). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combined analytical/FEA-based coupled aero structure simulation of a wind turbine with bend–twist adaptive blades

The simulation of wind turbines with bend–twist adaptive blades is a coupled aero-structure (CAS) procedure. The blade twist due to elastic coupling is a required parameter for wind turbine performance evaluation and can be predicted through a finite element (FE) structural analyser. FEA-based codes are far too slow to be useful in the aerodynamic design/optimisation of a blade. This paper presents a combined analytical/FEA-based method for CAS simulation of wind turbines utilising bend–twist adaptive blades. This method of simulation employs the induced twist distribution and the flap bending at the hub of the blade predicted through a FEA-based CAS simulation at a reference wind turbine run condition to determine the wind turbine performance at other wind turbine run conditions. This reduces the computational time significantly and makes the aerodynamic design/optimisation of bend–twist adaptive blades practical. Comparison of the results of a case study which applies both combined analytical/FEA-based and FEA-based CAS simulation shows that when using the combined method the required computational time for generating a power curve reduces to less than 5%, while the relative difference between the predicted powers by two methods is only about 1%.     

Fluid structure interaction of a morphed wind turbine blade

One serious challenge of energy systems design, wind turbines in particular, is the need to match the system operation to the variable load. This is so because system efficiency drops at off‐design load. One strategy to address this challenge for wind turbine blades and obtain a more consistent efficiency over a wide load range, is varying the blade geometry. Predictable morphing of wind turbine blade in reaction to wind load conditions has been introduced recently. The concept, derived from fish locomotion, also has similarities to spoilers and ailerons, known to reduce flow separation and improve performance using passive changes in blade geometry. In this work, we employ a fully coupled technique on CFD and FEM models to introduce continuous morphing to desired and predetermined blade design geometry, the NACA 4412 profile, which is commonly used in wind turbine applications. Then, we assess the aerodynamic behavior of a morphing wind turbine airfoil using a two‐dimensional computation. The work is focused on assessing aerodynamic forces based on trailing edge deflection, wind speed, and material elasticity, that is, Young's modulus. The computational results suggest that the morphing blade has superior part‐load efficiency over the rigid NACA blade. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simulating the aerodynamic performance and wake dynamics of a vertical‐axis wind turbine

The accurate prediction of the aerodynamics and performance of vertical‐axis wind turbines is essential if their design is to be improved but poses a significant challenge to numerical simulation tools. The cyclic motion of the blades induces large variations in the angle of attack of the blades that can manifest as dynamic stall. In addition, predicting the interaction between the blades and the wake developed by the rotor requires a high‐fidelity representation of the vortical structures within the flow field in which the turbine operates. The aerodynamic performance and wake dynamics of a Darrieus‐type vertical‐axis wind turbine consisting of two straight blades is simulated using Brown's Vorticity Transport Model. The predicted variation with azimuth of the normal and tangential force on the turbine blades compares well with experimental measurements. The interaction between the blades and the vortices that are shed and trailed in previous revolutions of the turbine is shown to have a significant effect on the distribution of aerodynamic loading on the blades. Furthermore, it is suggested that the disagreement between experimental and numerical data that has been presented in previous studies arises because the blade–vortex interactions on the rotor were not modelled with sufficient fidelity. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating the angle of attack from blade pressure measurements on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory phase VI rotor using a free wake vortex model: yawed conditions

Wind turbine design codes for calculating blade loads are usually based on a blade element momentum (BEM) approach. Since wind turbine rotors often operate in off‐design conditions, such as yawed flow, several engineering methods have been developed to take into account such conditions. An essential feature of a BEM code is the coupling of local blade element loads with an external (induced) velocity field determined with momentum theory through the angle of attack. Local blade loads follow directly from blade pressure measurements as performed in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) phase IV campaign, but corresponding angles of attack cannot (on principle) be measured. By developing a free wake vortex method using measured local blade loads, time‐dependent angle of attack and induced velocity distributions are reconstructed. In a previous paper, a method was described for deriving such distributions in conjunction with blade pressure measurements for the NREL phase VI wind turbine in axial (non‐yawed) conditions. In this paper, the same method is applied to investigate yawed conditions on the same turbine. The study considered different operating conditions in yaw in both attached and separated flows over the blades. The derived free wake geometry solutions are used to determine induced velocity distributions at the rotor blade. These are then used to determine the local (azimuth time dependent) angle of attack, as well as the corresponding lift and drag for each blade section. The derived results are helpful to develop better engineering models for wind turbine design codes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inverse design of horizontal axis wind turbine blades using a vortex line method

A new inverse design process for horizontal axis wind turbine blades is developed to account for three‐dimensional blade features such as non‐planar wing tip. The multidimensional Newton iteration method combined with a vortex line method is used to provide blade geometry parameters given desired aerodynamic behaviors such as lift coefficient and axial induction. The Jacobian matrix is visualized to show the effect of the change of the blade twist and chord on the change of the aerodynamic behaviors. The method is validated for a canonical straight blade with uniform lift coefficient and axial induction distributions. The results show an excellent agreement with those obtained by PROPID, which is a blade element momentum theory‐based inverse design code. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory Phase VI blade is used to validate the method for a straight blade with non‐uniform distributions of the lift coefficient and axial induction. The method is also applied successfully to a non‐straight blade design with a non‐planar wing tip. A noticeable change in the twist and chord for this non‐straight blade is seen compared with a straight blade. Finally, the inverse design code is used to make a large rotor blade, and the power output generated by this blade is computed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种水平轴风轮叶片的气动设计方法

发展了两种先进的水平轴风轮叶片气动计算和设计方法－PROPGA和PROPID,PROPGA是基于最优化方法的遗传算法,用于最初的叶片选择和几何设计;PROPID是一种基于反问题的叶片气动设计方法,用于最后的叶片造型和性能预估。给出了两个实例,一个是以基础科学研究为目的实验探索用全新风轮,另一个则是用于商业生产的小型风轮。在实际风轮设计中的成功使用证明,PROPID和PROPGA是一种强有力的设计工具,两者的结合使用可以得到最佳的风力涡轮气动性能。