Probing wind-turbine/atmosphere interactions at utility scale: Novel insights from the EOLOS wind energy research station

The Science of Making Torque from Wind 2014

Hong, J.^1,2 ; Guala, M.^1,3 ; Chamorro, L.P.^1,4 ; Sotiropoulos, F.^1,3

Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 Third Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55414, United States^1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 111 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States^2

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, 500 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, United States^3

Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, United States^4

关键词: High-resolution measurements;    Instantaneous power;    Meteorological tower;    Particle image velocimetries;    Research facilities;    Technical challenges;    University of Minnesota;    Wind energy research;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012001/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012001

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Despite major research efforts, the interaction of the atmospheric boundary layer with turbines and multi-turbine arrays at utility scale remains poorly understood today. This lack of knowledge stems from the limited number of utility-scale research facilities and a number of technical challenges associated with obtaining high-resolution measurements at field scale. We review recent results obtained at the University of Minnesota utility-scale wind energy research station (the EOLOS facility), which is comprised of a 130 m tall meteorological tower and a fully instrumented 2.5MW Clipper Liberty C96 wind turbine. The results address three major areas: 1) The detailed characterization of the wake structures at a scale of 36×36 m2using a novel super-large-scale particle image velocimetry based on natural snowflakes, including the rich tip vortex dynamics and their correlation with turbine operations, control, and performance; 2) The use of a WindCube Lidar profiler to investigate how wind at various elevations influences turbine power fluctuation and elucidate the role of wind gusts on individual blade loading; and 3) The systematic quantification of the interaction between the turbine instantaneous power output and tower foundation strain with the incoming flow turbulence, which is measured from the meteorological tower.