Demonstration and uncertainty analysis of synchronised scanning lidar measurements of 2-D velocity fields in a boundary-layer wind tunnel

Abstract. This paper combines the research methodologies of scaled wind turbine model experiments in wind tunnels with short-range WindScanner lidar measurement technology. The wind tunnel at the Politecnico di Milano was equipped with three wind turbine models and two short-range WindScanner lidars to demonstrate the benefits of synchronised scanning lidars in such experimental surroundings for the first time. The dual-lidar system can provide fully synchronised trajectory scans with sampling timescales ranging from seconds to minutes. First, staring mode measurements were compared to hot-wire probe measurements commonly used in wind tunnels. This yielded goodness of fit coefficients of 0.969 and 0.902 for the 1 Hz averaged u and v components of the wind speed, respectively, validating the 2-D measurement capability of the lidar scanners. Subsequently, the measurement of wake profiles on a line as well as wake area scans were executed to illustrate the applicability of lidar scanning to the measurement of small-scale wind flow effects. An extensive uncertainty analysis was executed to assess the accuracy of the method. The downsides of lidar with respect to the hot-wire probes are the larger measurement probe volume, which compromises the ability to measure turbulence, and the possible loss of a small part of the measurements due to hard target beam reflection. In contrast, the benefits are the high flexibility in conducting both point measurements and area scanning and the fact that remote sensing techniques do not disturb the flow during measuring. The research campaign revealed a high potential for using short-range synchronised scanning lidars to measure the flow around wind turbines in a wind tunnel and increased the knowledge about the corresponding uncertainties.