Turbine performance and optical fluid velocity measurements with application to dynamic transient flow over large scale wind turbine blades

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The primary objective of the research in this proposal is to perform experiments on large scale wind turbines in a controlled environment and apply laser based optical flow measurement techniques such as flow visualization, laser Doppler velocimetry, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) to make detailed measurements of the velocity fields developed around the wind turbine blades. Experimental studies of wind turbine aerodynamics have the potential to improve the operation and efficiency of turbines while reducing costs and decreasing noise. As the wind resource is variable turbines operate over a large range of dynamic operating conditions. Studies of turbine performance over realistic conditions, and at a scale that may be useful for modeling, validation and design are not common due to the scale of turbines themselves. In this proposal velocity and acoustic data will be collected from a wind turbine under various operating conditions in controlled conditions in order to understand the behaviour of the flow, provide high quality validation data for model development and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations of the flow and reliably quantify the above effects for inclusion in new tools for design.