Articles | Volume 8, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1369-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1369-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
07 Sep 2023
Research article |
| 07 Sep 2023
| 07 Sep 2023
Numerical study of the unsteady blade root aerodynamics of a 2 MW wind turbine equipped with vortex generators
Ferdinand Seel
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
University of Stuttgart, Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics (IAG), Pfaffenwaldring 21, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Thorsten Lutz
University of Stuttgart, Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics (IAG), Pfaffenwaldring 21, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Ewald Krämer
University of Stuttgart, Institute of Aerodynamics and Gas Dynamics (IAG), Pfaffenwaldring 21, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
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Pascal Weihing, Marion Cormier, Thorsten Lutz, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 933–962, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-933-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-933-2024, 2024
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This study evaluates different approaches to simulate the near-wake flow of a wind turbine. The test case is in off-design conditions of the wind turbine, where the flow is separated from the blades and therefore very difficult to predict. The evaluation of simulation techniques is key to understand their limitations and to deepen the understanding of the near-wake physics. This knowledge can help to derive new wind farm design methods for yield-optimized farm layouts.
Roger Bergua, Amy Robertson, Jason Jonkman, Emmanuel Branlard, Alessandro Fontanella, Marco Belloli, Paolo Schito, Alberto Zasso, Giacomo Persico, Andrea Sanvito, Ervin Amet, Cédric Brun, Guillén Campaña-Alonso, Raquel Martín-San-Román, Ruolin Cai, Jifeng Cai, Quan Qian, Wen Maoshi, Alec Beardsell, Georg Pirrung, Néstor Ramos-García, Wei Shi, Jie Fu, Rémi Corniglion, Anaïs Lovera, Josean Galván, Tor Anders Nygaard, Carlos Renan dos Santos, Philippe Gilbert, Pierre-Antoine Joulin, Frédéric Blondel, Eelco Frickel, Peng Chen, Zhiqiang Hu, Ronan Boisard, Kutay Yilmazlar, Alessandro Croce, Violette Harnois, Lijun Zhang, Ye Li, Ander Aristondo, Iñigo Mendikoa Alonso, Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Feike Savenije, David Marten, Rodrigo Soto-Valle, Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Alessandro Bianchini, Francesco Papi, Stefano Cioni, Pau Trubat, Daniel Alarcon, Climent Molins, Marion Cormier, Konstantin Brüker, Thorsten Lutz, Qing Xiao, Zhongsheng Deng, Florence Haudin, and Akhilesh Goveas
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 465–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, 2023
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This work examines if the motion experienced by an offshore floating wind turbine can significantly affect the rotor performance. It was observed that the system motion results in variations in the load, but these variations are not critical, and the current simulation tools capture the physics properly. Interestingly, variations in the rotor speed or the blade pitch angle can have a larger impact than the system motion itself.
Pradip Zamre and Thorsten Lutz
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1661–1677, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1661-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1661-2022, 2022
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To get more insight into the influence of the urban-terrain flow on the performance of the rooftop-mounted two-bladed Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbine, scale resolving simulations are performed for a generic wind turbine in realistic terrain under turbulent conditions. It is found that the turbulence and skewed nature of the flow near rooftop locations have a positive impact on the performance of the wind turbine.
Patrick Letzgus, Giorgia Guma, and Thorsten Lutz
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1551–1573, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1551-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1551-2022, 2022
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The research article presents the results of a study of highly resolved numerical simulations of a wind energy test site in complex terrain that is currently under construction in the Swabian Alps in southern Germany. The numerical results emphasised the importance of considering orography, vegetation, and thermal stratification in numerical simulations to resolve the wind field decently. In this way, the effects on loads, power, and wake of the wind turbine can also be predicted well.
Giorgia Guma, Philipp Bucher, Patrick Letzgus, Thorsten Lutz, and Roland Wüchner
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1421–1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1421-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1421-2022, 2022
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Wind turbine aeroelasticity is becoming more and more important because turbine sizes are increasingly leading to more slender blades. On the other hand, complex terrains are of interest because they are far away from urban areas. These regions are characterized by low velocities and high turbulence and are mostly influenced by the presence of forest, and that is why it is necessary to develop high-fidelity tools to correctly simulate the wind turbine's response.
Florian Wenz, Judith Langner, Thorsten Lutz, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1321–1340, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1321-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1321-2022, 2022
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To get a better understanding of the influence of the terrain flow on the unsteady pressure distributions on the wind turbine surface, a fully resolved turbine was simulated in the complex terrain of Perdigão, Portugal. It was found that the pressure fluctuations at the tower caused by vortex shedding are significantly hampered by the terrain flow, while the pressure fluctuations caused by the blade–tower interaction are hardly changed.
Giorgia Guma, Galih Bangga, Thorsten Lutz, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 93–110, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-93-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-93-2021, 2021
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With the increase in installed wind capacity, the rotor diameter of wind turbines is becoming larger and larger, and therefore it is necessary to take aeroelasticity into consideration. At the same time, wind turbines are in reality subjected to atmospheric inflow leading to high wind instabilities and fluctuations. Within this work, a high-fidelity chain is used to analyze the effects of both by the use of models of the same turbine with increasing complexity and technical details.
Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Marco Caboni, Marion Cormier, Thorsten Lutz, Paolo Schito, and Alberto Zasso
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1713–1730, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1713-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1713-2020, 2020
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This work characterizes the unsteady aerodynamic response of a scaled version of a 10 MW floating wind turbine subjected to an imposed platform motion. The focus has been put on the simple yet significant motion along the wind's direction (surge). For this purpose, different state-of-the-art aerodynamic codes have been used, validating the outcomes with detailed wind tunnel experiments. This paper sheds light on floating-turbine unsteady aerodynamics for a more conscious controller design.
Galih Bangga, Thorsten Lutz, and Matthias Arnold
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1037–1058, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1037-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1037-2020, 2020
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Robust and accurate dynamic stall modeling remains one of the most difficult tasks in wind turbine load calculations despite its long research effort in the past. The present paper describes a new
second-order dynamic stall model for wind turbine airfoils. The new model is robust and improves the prediction for the aerodynamic forces and their higher-harmonic effects due to vortex shedding but also provides improved predictions for pitching moment and drag.
Levin Klein, Jonas Gude, Florian Wenz, Thorsten Lutz, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 713–728, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-713-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-713-2018, 2018
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To get a better understanding of noise emissions from wind turbines at frequencies far below the audible range, simulations with increasing complexity were conducted. Consistent with the literature, it has been found that acoustic emission is dominated by the noise generated when the rotor blades pass the tower. These specific frequencies are less dominant in the structure-borne emission. Considering aerodynamic forces acting on the tower is important for the correct modeling of emissions.
Pascal Weihing, Tim Wegmann, Thorsten Lutz, Ewald Krämer, Timo Kühn, and Andree Altmikus
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 503–531, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-503-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-503-2018, 2018
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This research poses the question of whether rotor performance can be increased by an optimized design of the nacelle. For this purpose, the main geometrical parameters of the nacelle, such as the diameter, the relative position of the blade and the detailed shape in the junction of the blade, are investigated by means of computational fluid dynamics. By implementing a fairing-type shape in the junction, the detrimental flow separation in the inner part of the rotor could be eliminated.
Annette Claudia Klein, Sirko Bartholomay, David Marten, Thorsten Lutz, George Pechlivanoglou, Christian Navid Nayeri, Christian Oliver Paschereit, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 439–460, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-439-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-439-2018, 2018
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The paper describes the experimental and numerical investigation of a model wind turbine with a diameter of 3.0 m in a narrow wind tunnel. The objectives of the study are the provision of validation data, the comparison and evaluation of methods of different fidelity, and the assessment of the influence of wind tunnel walls. It turned out that the accordance between the experimental and numerical results is good, but the wind tunnel walls have to be taken into account for the present setup.
Eva Jost, Annette Fischer, Galih Bangga, Thorsten Lutz, and Ewald Krämer
Wind Energ. Sci., 2, 241–256, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2-241-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2-241-2017, 2017
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Trailing edge flaps applied to the outer part of a wind turbine rotor blade are a very promising concept to reduce fatigue loads as they are able to increase or decrease the airfoil lift for a given angle of attack. They have been widely researched on 2-D airfoils, but only little is known about their aerodynamic characteristics on 3-D wind turbine rotor blades. The present article addresses this issue.
Related subject area
Thematic area: Fluid mechanics | Topic: Wind turbine aerodynamics
Wind turbine rotors in surge motion: new insights into unsteady aerodynamics of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) from experiments and simulations
An insight into the capability of the actuator line method to resolve tip vortices
Aerodynamic model comparison for an X-shaped vertical-axis wind turbine
Aerodynamic characterisation of a thrust-scaled IEA 15 MW wind turbine model: Experimental insights using PIV data
Development and application of a mesh generator intended for unsteady vortex-lattice method simulations of wind turbines and wind farms
An experimental study on the aerodynamic loads of a floating offshore wind turbine under imposed motions
Developing a digital twin framework for wind tunnel testing: validation of turbulent inflow and airfoil load applications
Influence of rotor blade flexibility on the near-wake behavior of the NREL 5 MW wind turbine
Field-data-based validation of an aero-servo-elastic solver for high-fidelity large-eddy simulations of industrial wind turbines
An analytical linear two-dimensional actuator disc model and comparisons with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations
On the characteristics of the wake of a wind turbine undergoing large motions caused by a floating structure: an insight based on experiments and multi-fidelity simulations from the OC6 project Phase III
Forced-motion simulations of vortex-induced vibrations of wind turbine blades – a study of sensitivities
Towards smart blades for vertical axis wind turbines: different airfoil shapes and tip speed ratios
A Code-to-Code Comparison for Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Simulation in Realistic Environmental Conditions: Quantifying the Impact of Modeling Fidelity on Different Substructure Concepts
Going Beyond BEM with BEM: an Insight into Dynamic Inflow Effects on Floating Wind Turbines
Generalized analytical body force model for actuator disc computations of wind turbines
Nonlinear inviscid aerodynamics of a wind turbine rotor in surge, sway, and yaw motions using a free-wake panel method
OC6 project Phase III: validation of the aerodynamic loading on a wind turbine rotor undergoing large motion caused by a floating support structure
A simple vortex model applied to an idealized rotor in sheared inflow
Comparison of free vortex wake and blade element momentum results against large-eddy simulation results for highly flexible turbines under challenging inflow conditions
Numerical simulations of ice accretion on wind turbine blades: are performance losses due to ice shape or surface roughness?
Progress in the validation of rotor aerodynamic codes using field data
A comparison of dynamic inflow models for the blade element momentum method
Multiple limit cycle amplitudes in high-fidelity predictions of standstill wind turbine blade vibrations
Model tests of a 10 MW semi-submersible floating wind turbine under waves and wind using hybrid method to integrate the rotor thrust and moments
Atmospheric rotating rig testing of a swept blade tip and comparison with multi-fidelity aeroelastic simulations
A WaveNet-based fully stochastic dynamic stall model
Experimental analysis of the dynamic inflow effect due to coherent gusts
High-Reynolds-number wind turbine blade equipped with root spoilers – Part 2: Impact on energy production and turbine lifetime
Wind tunnel investigation of the aerodynamic response of two 15 MW floating wind turbines
Vertical wake deflection for floating wind turbines by differential ballast control
High-fidelity aeroelastic analyses of wind turbines in complex terrain: fluid–structure interaction and aerodynamic modeling
Development of a wireless, non-intrusive, MEMS-based pressure and acoustic measurement system for large-scale operating wind turbine blades
How should the lift and drag forces be calculated from 2-D airfoil data for dihedral or coned wind turbine blades?
Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Umut Özinan, Po Wen Cheng, and Moustafa Abdel-Maksoud
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 665–695, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-665-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-665-2024, 2024
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Understanding the underlying physical phenomena of the aerodynamics of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) is crucial for successful simulations. No consensus has been reached in the research community on which unsteady aerodynamic phenomena are relevant and how much they can influence the loads acting on a FOWT. This work contributes to the understanding and characterisation of such unsteady phenomena using a novel experimental approach and comprehensive numerical investigations.
Pier Francesco Melani, Omar Sherif Mohamed, Stefano Cioni, Francesco Balduzzi, and Alessandro Bianchini
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 601–622, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-601-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-601-2024, 2024
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The actuator line method (ALM) is a powerful tool for wind turbine simulation but struggles to resolve tip effects. The reason is still unclear. To investigate this, we use advanced angle of attack sampling and vortex tracking techniques to analyze the flow around a NACA0018 finite wing, simulated with ALM and blade-resolved computational fluid dynamics. Results show that the ALM can account for tip effects if the correct angle of attack sampling and force projection strategies are adopted.
Adhyanth Giri Ajay, Laurence Morgan, Yan Wu, David Bretos, Aurelio Cascales, Oscar Pires, and Carlos Ferreira
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 453–470, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-453-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-453-2024, 2024
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This paper compares six different numerical models to predict the performance of an X-shaped vertical-axis wind turbine, offering insights into how it works in 3D when its blades are fixed at specific angles. The results showed the 3D models here reliably predict the performance while still taking this turbine's complex aerodynamics into account compared to 2D models. Further, these blade angles caused more complexity in predicting the turbine's behaviour, which is highlighted in this paper.
Erik Fritz, André Ribeiro, Koen Boorsma, and Carlos Ferreira
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-3, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-3, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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This study presents results from a wind tunnel experiment on a model wind turbine. Using a non-intrusive measurement technique, the flow around the turbine blades was measured. In post-processing, the blade-level aerodynamics are derived from the measured flow fields. The detailed experimental database has great value in validating numerical tools of varying complexity, which aim at simulating wind turbine aerodynamics as accurately as possible.
Bruno A. Roccia, Luis R. Ceballos, Marcos L. Verstraete, and Cristian G. Gebhardt
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 385–416, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-385-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-385-2024, 2024
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In the literature there is a lack of meshing tools when it comes to building aerodynamic grids of wind turbines/farms to be used along with potential flow solvers. In this work, we present a detailed description of the geometric modeling and computational implementation of an interactive mesh generator, named UVLMeshGen, for onshore/offshore wind farms. The work is completed by providing a series of aerodynamic results related to wind turbines/farms to show the capacity of the mesh generator.
Federico Taruffi, Felipe Novais, and Axelle Viré
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 343–358, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, 2024
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Floating wind turbines are subject to complex aerodynamics that are not yet fully understood. Lab-scale experiments are crucial for capturing these phenomena and validate numerical tools. This paper presents a new wind tunnel experimental setup able to study the response of a wind turbine rotor when subjected to prescribed motions in 6 degrees of freedom. The observed unsteady effects underscore the importance of pursuing research on the impact of floater motions on wind turbine performance.
Rishabh Mishra, Emmanuel Guilmineau, Ingrid Neunaber, and Caroline Braud
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 235–252, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-235-2024, 2024
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To investigate the impact of turbulence on aerodynamic forces, we first model turbulent kinetic energy decay theoretically using the Taylor length scale and employ this model to create a digital wind tunnel replica for simulating grid-generated turbulence. Experimental validation shows good alignment among theory, simulations, and experiments, paving the way for aerodynamic simulations. Finally, we successfully use the digital replica to obtain force coefficients for a 2D rotor blade section.
Leo Höning, Laura J. Lukassen, Bernhard Stoevesandt, and Iván Herráez
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 203–218, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-203-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-203-2024, 2024
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This study analyzes the impact of wind turbine rotor blade flexibility on the aerodynamic loading of the blades and the consequential wind characteristics in the near wake of the turbine. It is shown that gravitation leads to rotational periodic fluctuations of blade loading, which directly impacts the trajectory of the blade tip vortex at different rotor blade positions while also resulting in a non-uniform wind velocity deficit in the wake of the wind turbine.
Etienne Muller, Simone Gremmo, Félix Houtin-Mongrolle, Bastien Duboc, and Pierre Bénard
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 25–48, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-25-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-25-2024, 2024
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This article presents an advanced tool designed for the high-fidelity and high-performance simulation of operating wind turbines, allowing for instance the computation of a blade deformation, as well as of the surrounding airflow. As this tool relies on coupling two existing codes, the coupling strategy is first described in depth. The article then compares the code results to field data for validation.
Helge Aagaard Madsen
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1853–1872, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1853-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1853-2023, 2023
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We present a linear analytical solution for a two-dimensional (2-D) actuator disc (AD) for a plane disc, a yawed disc and a coned disc. Comparisons of the 2-D model with three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) AD simulations for a circular yawed disc and with an axis-symmetric CFD simulation of a coned disc show good correlation for the normal velocity component of the disc. This indicates that the 2-D AD model could form the basis for a consistent, simple new rotor induction model.
Stefano Cioni, Francesco Papi, Leonardo Pagamonci, Alessandro Bianchini, Néstor Ramos-García, Georg Pirrung, Rémi Corniglion, Anaïs Lovera, Josean Galván, Ronan Boisard, Alessandro Fontanella, Paolo Schito, Alberto Zasso, Marco Belloli, Andrea Sanvito, Giacomo Persico, Lijun Zhang, Ye Li, Yarong Zhou, Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Ricardo Amaral, Axelle Viré, Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Rodrigo Soto-Valle, David Marten, Raquel Martín-San-Román, Pau Trubat, Climent Molins, Roger Bergua, Emmanuel Branlard, Jason Jonkman, and Amy Robertson
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1659–1691, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1659-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1659-2023, 2023
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Simulations of different fidelities made by the participants of the OC6 project Phase III are compared to wind tunnel wake measurements on a floating wind turbine. Results in the near wake confirm that simulations and experiments tend to diverge from the expected linearized quasi-steady behavior when the reduced frequency exceeds 0.5. In the far wake, the impact of platform motion is overestimated by simulations and even seems to be oriented to the generation of a wake less prone to dissipation.
Christian Grinderslev, Felix Houtin-Mongrolle, Niels Nørmark Sørensen, Georg Raimund Pirrung, Pim Jacobs, Aqeel Ahmed, and Bastien Duboc
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1625–1638, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1625-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1625-2023, 2023
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In standstill conditions wind turbines are at risk of vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). VIVs can become large and lead to significant fatigue of the wind turbine structure over time. Thus it is important to have tools that can accurately compute this complex phenomenon. This paper studies the sensitivities to the chosen models of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations when modelling VIVs and finds that much care is needed when setting up simulations, especially for specific flow angles.
Mohammad Rasoul Tirandaz, Abdolrahim Rezaeiha, and Daniel Micallef
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1403–1424, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1403-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1403-2023, 2023
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Vertical axis wind turbines experience a variation of torque and power throughout their rotation. Traditional non-morphing blades are intrinsically not able to respond to this variation, resulting in a turbine which has suboptimal performance. In principle, it is possible to have a morphing blade that adapts to the blade's rotation and changes its geometry in such a way as to optimise the performance of the turbine. This paper addresses the question of how such blade should morph as it rotates.
Francesco Papi, Giancarlo Troise, Robert Behrens de Luna, Joseph Saverin, Sebastian Perez-Becker, David Marten, Marie-Laure Ducasse, and Alessandro Bianchini
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-107, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-107, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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Wind turbines are simulated for thousands of hours to estimate structural design loads. Mid-fidelity numerical models are used for this task, to strike a balance between computational cost and accuracy. The considerable displacements of floating wind turbines may be a challenge for some of these models. This paper enhances comprehension of how modeling theories affect floating wind turbine simulations. It does so by assessing three codes across three turbines simulated in the real environment.
Francesco Papi, Jason Jonkman, Amy Robertson, and Alessandro Bianchini
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-109, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-109, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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Blade Element Momentum theory (BEM) is the backbone of many industry-standard aerodynamic models. However, the analysis of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) introduces new challenges, which could put BEM models to the test. This study systematically compares four aerodynamic models, ranging from BEM to Computational Fluid Dynamics, in an attempt to shed light on the unsteady aerodynamic phenomena that are at stake in FOWTs and whether BEM is able to model them appropriately.
Jens N. Sørensen
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1017–1027, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1017-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1017-2023, 2023
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The paper presents a simple analytical model that, with surprisingly good accuracy, represents the loading for virtually any horizontal axis wind turbine, independent of size and operating regime. The aim of the model is to have a simple tool that may represent the loading of any wind turbine without having access to the details regarding the specific geometry and airfoil data, information that is normally kept confidential by the manufacturer of the turbine.
André F. P. Ribeiro, Damiano Casalino, and Carlos S. Ferreira
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 661–675, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-661-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-661-2023, 2023
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Floating offshore wind turbines move due to not having a rigid foundation. Hence, as the blades rotate they experience more complex aerodynamics than standard onshore wind turbines. In this paper, we show computational simulations of a wind turbine rotor moving in various ways and quantify the effects of the motion in the forces acting on the blades. We show that these forces behave in nonlinear ways in some cases.
Roger Bergua, Amy Robertson, Jason Jonkman, Emmanuel Branlard, Alessandro Fontanella, Marco Belloli, Paolo Schito, Alberto Zasso, Giacomo Persico, Andrea Sanvito, Ervin Amet, Cédric Brun, Guillén Campaña-Alonso, Raquel Martín-San-Román, Ruolin Cai, Jifeng Cai, Quan Qian, Wen Maoshi, Alec Beardsell, Georg Pirrung, Néstor Ramos-García, Wei Shi, Jie Fu, Rémi Corniglion, Anaïs Lovera, Josean Galván, Tor Anders Nygaard, Carlos Renan dos Santos, Philippe Gilbert, Pierre-Antoine Joulin, Frédéric Blondel, Eelco Frickel, Peng Chen, Zhiqiang Hu, Ronan Boisard, Kutay Yilmazlar, Alessandro Croce, Violette Harnois, Lijun Zhang, Ye Li, Ander Aristondo, Iñigo Mendikoa Alonso, Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Feike Savenije, David Marten, Rodrigo Soto-Valle, Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Alessandro Bianchini, Francesco Papi, Stefano Cioni, Pau Trubat, Daniel Alarcon, Climent Molins, Marion Cormier, Konstantin Brüker, Thorsten Lutz, Qing Xiao, Zhongsheng Deng, Florence Haudin, and Akhilesh Goveas
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 465–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, 2023
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This work examines if the motion experienced by an offshore floating wind turbine can significantly affect the rotor performance. It was observed that the system motion results in variations in the load, but these variations are not critical, and the current simulation tools capture the physics properly. Interestingly, variations in the rotor speed or the blade pitch angle can have a larger impact than the system motion itself.
Mac Gaunaa, Niels Troldborg, and Emmanuel Branlard
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 503–513, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-503-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-503-2023, 2023
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We present an analytical vortex model. Despite its simplicity, the model is fully consistent with 1D momentum theory. It shows that the flow through a non-uniformly loaded rotor operating in non-uniform inflow behaves locally as predicted by 1D momentum theory. As a consequence, the local power coefficient (based on local inflow) of an ideal rotor is unaltered by the presence of shear. Finally, the model shows that there is no cross-shear deflection of the wake of a rotor in sheared inflow.
Kelsey Shaler, Benjamin Anderson, Luis A. Martínez-Tossas, Emmanuel Branlard, and Nick Johnson
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 383–399, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-383-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-383-2023, 2023
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Free-vortex wake (OLAF) and low-fidelity blade-element momentum (BEM) structural results are compared to high-fidelity simulation results for a flexible downwind turbine for varying inflow conditions. Overall, OLAF results were more consistent than BEM results when compared to SOWFA results under challenging inflow conditions. Differences between OLAF and BEM results were dominated by yaw misalignment angle, with varying shear exponent and turbulence intensity causing more subtle differences.
Francesco Caccia and Alberto Guardone
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 341–362, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-341-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-341-2023, 2023
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Ice roughness deteriorates wind turbine aerodynamics. We have shown numerically that this also occurs when complex ice shapes are present on the leading edge, as long as the blade's wet region extends beyond the ice shape itself and roughness elements are high enough. Such features are typical of icing events on wind turbines but are not captured by current icing simulation tools. Future research should focus on correctly computing both the wet region of the blade and the roughness height.
Koen Boorsma, Gerard Schepers, Helge Aagard Madsen, Georg Pirrung, Niels Sørensen, Galih Bangga, Manfred Imiela, Christian Grinderslev, Alexander Meyer Forsting, Wen Zhong Shen, Alessandro Croce, Stefano Cacciola, Alois Peter Schaffarczyk, Brandon Lobo, Frederic Blondel, Philippe Gilbert, Ronan Boisard, Leo Höning, Luca Greco, Claudio Testa, Emmanuel Branlard, Jason Jonkman, and Ganesh Vijayakumar
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 211–230, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-211-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-211-2023, 2023
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Within the framework of the fourth phase of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Wind Task 29, a large comparison exercise between measurements and aeroelastic simulations has been carried out. Results were obtained from more than 19 simulation tools of various fidelity, originating from 12 institutes and compared to state-of-the-art field measurements. The result is a unique insight into the current status and accuracy of rotor aerodynamic modeling.
Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Gerard Schepers, and Feike Savenije
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 193–210, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-193-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-193-2023, 2023
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Modern wind turbines are subject to complex wind conditions that are far from the hypothesis of steady uniform inflow at the core of blade element momentum methods (the current industry standard for wind turbine design). Various corrections have been proposed to model this complexity. The present work focuses on modelling the unsteady evolution of wind turbine wakes (dynamic inflow), comparing the different corrections available and highlighting their effects on design load predictions.
Christian Grinderslev, Niels Nørmark Sørensen, Georg Raimund Pirrung, and Sergio González Horcas
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2201–2213, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2201-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2201-2022, 2022
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As wind turbines increase in size, the risk of flow-induced instabilities increases. This study investigates the phenomenon of vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) on a large 10 MW wind turbine blade using two high-fidelity methods. It is found that VIVs can occur with multiple equilibrium states for the same flow case, showing an dependence on the initial conditions. This means that a blade which is stable in a flow can become unstable if, e.g., a turbine operation provokes an initial vibration.
Felipe Vittori, José Azcona, Irene Eguinoa, Oscar Pires, Alberto Rodríguez, Álex Morató, Carlos Garrido, and Cian Desmond
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2149–2161, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2149-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2149-2022, 2022
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This paper describes the results of a wave tank test campaign of a scaled SATH 10 MW INNWIND floating platform. The software-in-the-loop (SiL) hybrid method was used to include the wind turbine thrust and the in-plane rotor moments. Experimental results are compared with a numerical model developed in OpenFAST of the floating wind turbine. The results are discussed, identifying limitations of the numerical models and obtaining conclusions on how to improve them.
Thanasis Barlas, Georg Raimund Pirrung, Néstor Ramos-García, Sergio González Horcas, Ang Li, and Helge Aagaard Madsen
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1957–1973, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1957-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1957-2022, 2022
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An aeroelastically optimized curved wind turbine blade tip is designed, manufactured, and tested on a novel outdoor rotating rig facility at the Risø campus of the Technical University of Denmark. Detailed aerodynamic measurements for various atmospheric conditions and results are compared to a series of in-house aeroelastic tools with a range of fidelities in aerodynamic modeling. The comparison highlights details in the ability of the codes to predict the performance of such a curved tip.
Jan-Philipp Küppers and Tamara Reinicke
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1889–1903, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1889-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1889-2022, 2022
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Airfoils play a major role in the technical harnessing of energy from currents such as wind and water. When the angle of attack of a wing changes dynamically, the forces on the wing often change more than would have been assumed from static measurements alone. Since these dynamic forces have a strong influence, e.g., on the performance of airplanes and wind turbines, a neural-network-based model was created that can predict these loads and their stochastic fluctuations.
Frederik Berger, Lars Neuhaus, David Onnen, Michael Hölling, Gerard Schepers, and Martin Kühn
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1827–1846, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1827-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1827-2022, 2022
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We proof the dynamic inflow effect due to gusts in wind tunnel experiments with MoWiTO 1.8 in the large wind tunnel of ForWind – University of Oldenburg, where we created coherent gusts with an active grid. The effect is isolated in loads and rotor flow by comparison of a quasi-steady and a dynamic case. The observed effect is not caught by common dynamic inflow engineering models. An improvement to the Øye dynamic inflow model is proposed, matching experiment and corresponding FVWM simulations.
Thomas Potentier, Emmanuel Guilmineau, Arthur Finez, Colin Le Bourdat, and Caroline Braud
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1771–1790, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1771-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1771-2022, 2022
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A wind turbine blade equipped with root spoilers is analysed using time domain aeroelastic simulations to assess the impact of passive devices on the turbine AEP and lifetime. A novel way to account for aerofoil-generated unsteadiness in the fatigue calculation is proposed and detailed. The outcome shows that spoilers, on average, can increase the AEP of the turbine. However, the structural impacts on the turbine can be severe if not accounted for initially in the turbine design.
Alessandro Fontanella, Alan Facchinetti, Simone Di Carlo, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1711–1729, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1711-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1711-2022, 2022
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The aerodynamics of floating wind turbines is complicated by large motions permitted by the foundation. The interaction between turbine, wind, and wake is not yet fully understood. The wind tunnel experiments of this paper shed light on the aerodynamic force and wake response of the floating IEA 15 MW turbine subjected to platform motion as would occur during normal operation. This will help future research on turbine and wind farm control.
Emmanouil M. Nanos, Carlo L. Bottasso, Simone Tamaro, Dimitris I. Manolas, and Vasilis A. Riziotis
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1641–1660, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1641-2022, 2022
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A novel way of wind farm control is presented where the wake is deflected vertically to reduce interactions with downstream turbines. This is achieved by moving ballast in a floating offshore platform in order to pitch the support structure and thereby tilt the wind turbine rotor disk. The study considers the effects of this new form of wake control on the aerodynamics of the steering and wake-affected turbines, on the structure, and on the ballast motion system.
Giorgia Guma, Philipp Bucher, Patrick Letzgus, Thorsten Lutz, and Roland Wüchner
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1421–1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1421-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1421-2022, 2022
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Wind turbine aeroelasticity is becoming more and more important because turbine sizes are increasingly leading to more slender blades. On the other hand, complex terrains are of interest because they are far away from urban areas. These regions are characterized by low velocities and high turbulence and are mostly influenced by the presence of forest, and that is why it is necessary to develop high-fidelity tools to correctly simulate the wind turbine's response.
Sarah Barber, Julien Deparday, Yuriy Marykovskiy, Eleni Chatzi, Imad Abdallah, Gregory Duthé, Michele Magno, Tommaso Polonelli, Raphael Fischer, and Hanna Müller
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1383–1398, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1383-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1383-2022, 2022
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Aerodynamic and acoustic field measurements on operating large-scale wind turbines are key for the further reduction in the costs of wind energy. In this work, a novel cost-effective MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems)-based aerodynamic and acoustic wireless measurement system that is thin, non-intrusive, easy to install, low power and self-sustaining is designed and tested.
Ang Li, Mac Gaunaa, Georg Raimund Pirrung, Alexander Meyer Forsting, and Sergio González Horcas
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1341–1365, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1341-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1341-2022, 2022
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A consistent method of using two-dimensional airfoil data when using generalized lifting-line methods for the aerodynamic load calculation of non-planar horizontal-axis wind turbines is described. The important conclusions from the unsteady two-dimensional airfoil aerodynamics are highlighted. The impact of using a simplified approach instead of using the full model on the prediction of the aerodynamic performance of non-planar rotors is shown numerically for different aerodynamic models.
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Short summary
Vortex generators are evaluated on a 2 MW wind turbine rotor blade by computational fluid dynamic methods. Those devices delay flow separation on the airfoils and thus increase their efficiency. On the wind turbine blade, rotational phenomena (e.g. rotational augmentation) appear and interact with the vortices from the vortex generators. The understanding of those interactions is crucial in order to optimise the placement of the vortex generators and evaluate their real efficiency on the blade.
Vortex generators are evaluated on a 2 MW wind turbine rotor blade by computational fluid...
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