Tailoring incoming shear and turbulence profiles for lab‐scale wind turbines

An active grid is used to generate a variety of turbulent shear profiles in a wind tunnel. The vertical bars are set to flap through varying angles across the test section producing a variation in the perceived solidity, resulting in a mean shear. The horizontal bars are used in a fully random operational mode to set the background turbulence level. It is demonstrated that mean velocity profiles with approximately the same shear can be produced with different turbulence intensities and local turbulent Reynolds numbers based on the Taylor microscale, λ. Conversely, it is also demonstrated that flows can be produced with similar turbulence intensity profiles but different mean shear. It is confirmed that the length scales and dynamics, the latter being assessed through the velocity spectra and probability density functions, do not vary significantly across the investigation domain. Such flows are of particular relevance for studies investigating the effect of in‐flow conditions on obstacles where these studies wish to decouple the effects of turbulence intensity and mean shear, a feat previously unattainable in experimental facilities. Given that the power output of wind turbines is known to be a function of both mean shear and turbulence intensity, the experimental methodology presented herein is invaluable to the wind turbine model testing community who, at present, cannot exert such control authority over the in‐flow conditions.     

Fin sweep angle does not determine flapping propulsive performance

The importance of the leading-edge sweep angle of propulsive surfaces used by unsteady swimming and flying animals has been an issue of debate for many years, spurring studies in biology, engineering, and robotics with mixed conclusions. In this work, we provide results from three-dimensional simulations on single-planform finite foils undergoing tail-like (pitch-heave) and flipper-like (twist-roll) kinematics for a range of sweep angles covering a substantial portion of animals while carefully controlling all other parameters. Our primary finding is the negligible 0.043 maximum correlation between the sweep angle and the propulsive force and power for both tail-like and flipper-like motions. This indicates that fish tails and mammal flukes with similar range and size can have a large range of potential sweep angles without significant negative propulsive impact. Although there is a slight benefit to avoiding large sweep angles, this is easily compensated by adjusting the fin’s motion parameters such as flapping frequency, amplitude and maximum angle of attack to gain higher thrust and efficiency.