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Wind turbines often have lower performance and experience higher loading in real operation compared to the original design performance. The reasons stem from the influences of complex atmospheric turbulence, blade contamination, surface imperfection and airfoil‐shape changes. Engineering models used for designing wind turbines are limited to information derived from blade sectional datasets, while details on the three‐dimensional blade characteristics are not captured. In these studies, a dedicated strategy to improve the prediction accuracy of engineering model calculations will be presented. The main aim is to present an elaborated effort to obtain a better estimate of the turbine loads in realistic operating conditions. The present studies are carried out by carefully utilizing data from high fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computations into Blade Element Momentum (BEM) and Vortexline methods. The results are in a good agreement with detailed field measurement data of a 2.3 MW turbine. The studies are further extended to a large turbine having a rated power of 10 MW to provide an overview of its suitability for large turbines. Finally, calculations of the wind turbine under a realistic IEC design load case are demonstrated. The studies highlight important considerations for engineering modeling using BEM and Vortexline methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the dynamic stall effects in engineering calculations is essential for correcting the aerodynamic loads acting on wind turbines, both during power production and stand-still cases, and impacts significantly the turbine aeroelastic stability. The employed dynamic stall model needs to be accurate and robust for a wide range of airfoils and range of angle of attack. The present studies are intended to demonstrate the performance of a recently implemented "IAG dynamic stall" model in a wind turbine design tool Bladed. The model is transformed from the indicial type of formulation into a state-space representation. The new model is validated against measurement data and other dynamic stall models in Bladed for various flow conditions and airfoils. It is demonstrated that the new model is able to reproduce the measured dynamic polar accurately without airfoil specific parameter calibration and has a superior performance compared to the incompressible Beddoes–Leishman model and the Øye model in Bladed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gust is a common atmospheric turbulence phenomenon encountered by aircraft and is one major cause of several undesired instability problems. Although the response of aircraft to the incoming gust has been widely investigated within the subject of external-flow aerodynamics in the past decades, little attention is paid to its effects on the internal flow within aircraft engines. In this paper, a newly implemented Field Velocity Method (FVM) in OpenFOAM is used to simulate the flow field and aerodynamic responses of a serpentine inlet exposed to non-stationary horizontal sinusoidal gusts. Validations are performed on the results obtained based on the baseline Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver and the gust modeling method. Finally, the flow field and aerodynamic characteristics of the serpentine inlet under horizontal sinusoidal gust conditions are comprehensively investigated. It is found that the gusts not only significantly change the flow structure but also play an unfavorable role in the total pressure distortion of the serpentine inlet. This finding shows the necessity to consider gust effects when designing and evaluating the performance of aircraft engines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The results of high fidelity aerodynamic and acoustic computations of thick flatback airfoils are reported in the present paper. The studies are conducted on a flatback airfoil having a relative thickness of 30% with the blunt trailing edge thickness of 10% relative to chord. Delayed Detached‐Eddy Simulation (DDES) approaches in combination with high order (5th) flux discretization WENO (Weighted Essentially Non‐Oscillatory) and l2Roe$l^{2}Roe$ Riemann solver are employed. Two variants of the DES length scale calculation methods are compared. The results are validated against experimental data with good accuracy. The studies provide guideline on the mesh and turbulence modeling selection for flatback airfoil simulations. The results indicate that the wake breakdown is strongly influenced by the spanwise resolution of the mesh, which directly contributes to the prediction accuracy especially for drag force and noise emission. The Reynolds normal stress u′u′¯$\overline{u^{\prime }u^{\prime }}$ and the u′v′¯$\overline{u^{\prime }v^{\prime }}$ Reynolds stress component have the largest contributions on the mixing process, while the contribution of the u′w′¯$\overline{u^{\prime }w^{\prime }}$ component is minimal. Proper orthogonal decomposition is further performed to gain deeper insights into the wake characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data driven approaches are utilized for optimal sensor placement as well as for velocity prediction of wind turbine wakes. In this work, several methods are investigated for suitability in the clustering analysis and for predicting the time history of the flow field. The studies start by applying a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) technique to extract the dynamics of the flow. This is followed by evaluations of different hyperparameters of the clustering and machine learning algorithms as well as their impacts on the prediction accuracy. Two test cases are considered: (1) the wake of a cylinder and (2) the wake of a rotating wind turbine rotor exposed to complex flow conditions. The training and test data for both cases are obtained from high fidelity CFD approaches. The studies reveal that the combination of a classification-based machine learning algorithm for optimal sensor placement and Bi-LSTM is sufficient for predicting periodic signals, but a more advanced technique is required for the highly complex data of the turbine near wake. This is done by exploiting the dynamics of the wake from the set of POD modes for flow field reconstruction. A satisfactory accuracy is achieved for an appropriately chosen prediction horizon of the Bi-LSTM networks. The obtained results show that data-driven approaches for wind turbine wake prediction can offer an alternative to conventional prediction approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow physics of high solidity vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) is influenced by the dynamic stall effects. The present study is aimed at investigating the effects of airfoil thickness on the unsteady characteristics of high solidity VAWTs. Seven different national advisory committee for aeronautics (NACA) airfoils (0008, 0012, 0018, 0021, 0025, 0030, 0040) are investigated. A high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach is used to examine the load and flow characteristics in detail. Before the study is undertaken, the CFD simulation is validated with experimental data as well as large eddy simulation results with sound agreement. The investigation demonstrates that increasing the airfoil thickness is actually beneficial not only for suppressing the dynamic stall effects but also to improve the performance of high solidity turbines. Interestingly this is accompanied by a slight reduction in thrust component. The strength and radius of the dynamic stall vortex decrease with increasing airfoil thickness. The airfoil thickness strongly influences the pressure distributions during dynamic stall process, which is driven by the suction peak near the leading edge. The knowledge gained might be used by blade engineers for designing future turbines and for improving the accuracy of engineering models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gust response is one of the classic topics in aerodynamics. Two different transfer functions, Sears and Atassi, have been used to model the unsteady lift responses of an airfoil experiencing a sinusoidal gust over the past few decades. However, a significant discrepancy against measured data has consistently been observed. Although the discrepancy at high frequencies was solved by a correct normalization of the lift response of an airfoil [Wei et al., "Insights into the periodic gust response of airfoils," J. Fluid Mech. 876, 237 (2019)], totally opposite trends emerged between the experimental data and both functions at low frequencies. To clarify the observed discrepancy, both wind-tunnel experiments and numerical simulations are performed in this study to characterize the Sears and Atassi inflow conditions generated by oscillating grid vanes. A scaling law is established for fast determination of the oscillation parameters of the vanes required to generate a specific gust angle. The gust-angle phase shift between the empty-tunnel and test airfoil cases is quantified. A universal transfer function normalization method is proposed for arbitrary sinusoidal gusts and arbitrary airfoil shapes. The discrepancy between the measured and theoretical lift responses at low gust frequencies is found to be related to the dynamic effect of the highly turbulent wakes of the oscillating vanes as well as the large installation angle of the test airfoil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate predictions on vertical axis wind turbine performance are important for the design process but also challenging because the flow is highly unsteady involving a strong variation of the angle of incidence. In the present work, a double-multiple-streamtube (DMS) approach is improved by analytical corrections. First, two-dimensional and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed for wind turbines at various tip speed ratios. The CFD results are used as a database to investigate the velocity field of the turbines and to derive reasonable physical basis for the modelling approach. Second, new analytical models are introduced to correct the angle of incidence seen by the airfoil section together with correction models for the streamtube expansion and dynamic stall effects. DMS simulations are then carried out and compared with experimental data for turbines with different rotor solidity and various operating ranges. The prediction accuracy is significantly improved by the new model not only for the power coefficient but also for the azimuthal variations of the blade loads. • New analytical correction models are developed for accurate VAWT predictions. • 2D and 3D CFD simulations are performed to derive physical basis for the approach. • The effect and importance of each correction term are analysed and discussed. • The model is accurate for turbines with different solidity and operating ranges. • The improvement is not only for the global but also for the azimuthal blade loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of lateral wind gusts on the aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbines. A synthetic approach coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and the double multiple streamtube method is utilized to calculate vertical axis wind turbine performance. For simulating the wind gust response, the resolved gust approach (RGA) models the gust transport throughout the wind field. The effects of wind gusts on the effective wind velocity, angle of attack, torque and power performance are evaluated. The presence of gusts slightly changes the effective wind velocity and angle of attack. Lateral gusts increase the angles of attack in the upwind half period causing premature flow separations in the flowfield, while suppress flow separation by decreasing the angles of attack in the downwind period. The mean torque and power of the three-bladed turbines are enhanced by the lateral sharp-edge gust of 2 m/s by 5% in comparison to the steady wind. Reducing the number of blades to one and doubling the gust velocity make the performance further enhances by 14.7% and 34%, respectively. Finally, the effects of several gust shapes are investigated and discussed. Highlights • Wind turbine power output under gusts is calculated. • The process of gust passing wind turbines is simulated. • The method to calculate three-dimensional turbine performance is of low cost. • The effects of gusts on wind turbine performance are analyzed comprehensively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the analysis of the aerodynamic performance of wind turbines, the need to account for the effects of rotation is important as engineering models often failed to predict these phenomena. Investigations are carried out by employing an unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach on a generic 10MW AVATAR (Advanced Aerodynamic Tools for Large Rotors) blade. The focus of the studies is the evaluation of the 3D effect characteristics on thick airfoils in the root area. For preliminary studies, 2D simulations of the airfoils constructing the blade and 3D simulations of the turbine near the rated conditions are carried out. The 2D simulations are in good agreement with available measurements within the linear lift region, but the accuracy deteriorates in the post stall region. For the 3D wind turbine rotor results, the prediction is consistent with other CFD computations obtained from the literature. Further calculations of the rotor are conducted at 5 different wind speeds ranging from below to above the rated conditions, which correspond to 5 different angles of attack. The CFD simulations demonstrate that the lift coefficient increases in the blade root region compared to the 2D conditions caused by the centrifugal pumping and Coriolis force via the reduction of the boundary layer thickness and separation delay. The Coriolis force effect decreases with the increasing wind speed and radial position. In addition, the aerodynamic behaviour of the blade inboard region is influenced by the shedding direction of the trailing vortices. The occurrence of downwash is observed causing a local increase in the drag coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is intended to assess the ability of the state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and blade element momentum (BEM) approaches for accurate load predictions on a 2.3 MW wind turbine rotor. Three different cases are considered, a steady uniform inflow condition, a turbulent uniform inflow condition and a turbulent inflow case in combination with shear and yaw. The CFD computations employ a delayed-detached eddy simulation (DDES) approach in combination with a high order (5th) WENO method for flux discretization. The BEM calculations apply several correction factors including recently developed dynamic stall and yaw models. Furthermore, a well established procedure at IAG to set-up BEM calculations consistent to CFD will be presented and verified. The results are compared with the field experimental data of the turbine for these three different flow conditions. The studies show that both CFD and BEM results are in a very good agreement with the experimental data not only on the mean load levels but also with regards to the load fluctuations. The differences between BEM, CFD and experimental data for most radial stations are less than 10%. • A dedicated procedure for consistent BEM-CFD simulations is presented. • A new yaw model formulation for BEM is presented. • Advanced numerical techniques are used to simulate wind turbine loads. • The studies consider uniform, sheared and yawed flow conditions. • CFD and BEM are in a very good agreement with measurement data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present studies, the effects of Gurney flaps on aerodynamic characteristics of a static airfoil and a rotating vertical axis wind turbine are investigated by means of numerical approaches. First, mesh and time step studies are conducted and the results are validated with experimental data in good agreement. The numerical solutions demonstrate that the usage of Gurney flap increases the airfoil lift coefficient C L with a slight increase in drag coefficient C D . Furthermore, mounting a Gurney flap at the trailing edge of the blade increases the power production of the turbine considerably. Increasing the Gurney flap height further increases the power production. The best performance found is obtained for the maximum height used in this study at 6% relative to the chord. This is in contrast to the static airfoil case, which shows no further improvement for a flap height greater than 0.5 % c . Increasing the angle of the flap decreases the power production of the turbine slightly but the load fluctuations could be reduced for the small value of the flap height. The present paper demonstrates that the Gurney flap height for high solidity turbines is allowed to be larger than the classical limit of around 2% for lower solidity turbines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is intended to assess the ability of state-of-the-art approaches with various fidelity levels for accurate load predictions on vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). The assessments are conducted by employing the Double-Multiple-Streamtube (DMS), Improved-DMS (IDMS), Unsteady Blade Element Momentum (UBEM), Vortex Model and fully resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approaches. For the later case, three different codes are employed, namely FLOWer, TAU and Ansys Fluent. Three different turbines from low up to high rotor solidity (0.23, 0.53 and 1.325) are selected as the case studies. The prediction results are compared with experimental data at various operating ranges in terms of integral and azimuthal loads. The studies demonstrate that there is consistent agreement between engineering models at lightly loaded cases for the power curve prediction. The discrepancy at high tip speed ratio (λ) is caused by wake expansion, unsteady and decambering effects. In contrast, CFD predictions hardly show consistent power prediction but deliver accurate thrust values. • Three VAWTs at various solidity are simulated using state-of-the-art prediction approaches. • The predictions make use of the DMS, IDMS, UBEM, Vortex model and CFD approaches. • The consistency and accuracy of each model are presented and discussed. • Low order models are consistent and accurate for lightly loaded cases. • Wake expansion term is important for low order models at high TSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]