C. G. HELMIS**
by DAVID MILBORROW)
Abstract-Wake
flow measurements
have been performed using the technique of particle image velocimetry
(PIV) at stations downstream
from a model wind turbine rotor, and evaluated against experimental data
from two full-scale machines. Comparisons
include both mean velocity and turbulent intensity cross-wake
profiles at a range of tip speed ratios. The application
of PIV to the study of wind turbine wakes is
described in detail, including the steps required to ensure appropriate
and accurate simulation of the flow
field conditions. The results suggest that the PIV method is a potentially useful tool in the investigation
of detailed wake flow, though significant differences are observed between wake velocity deficits at fulland model scale. These are discussed with regard to scale effect, the influence of terrain, model similarity,
and the phenomenon
of wake meandering and effective cross-wake smoothing. Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier
Science Ltd.
1. INTRODUCTION
622
J. Whale et al.
OF EXPERIMENTS
623
of a wind turbine
9
al 0.7
E
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j
310
Upstream
speed
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+++++
ooooo
I
320
330
Wind
340
direction
350
range
13-15
15-17
22-26
I
360
m/s
m/s
m/s
I
370
(deg.)
Fig. 1. Non-wake
velocity ratios at l.lD for the WM19S
wind turbine (rotor stationary),
as a function of upstream
wind direction and windspeed.
624
J. Whale et al.
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x
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8 0.7
.;
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h
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0.4
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I
245
265
310 ,
3io
3io
Wind
340
direction
350
360
3+0
(deg.)
V20/100, Riss.
285
305
325
Wind direction
0.6
..I
(deg.)
by
of
measurements
TT
.A----- Tffles,
water
of a wind turbine
625
FI
surface
streamlined
tower
I
I
750 mm
measurement
zone
l-
Fig. 4. Schematic
diagram
pulsed lasers. The tests established the applicability and usefulness of PIV as a velocimetry
tool for wind turbines.
The same researchers
subsequently
made PIV measurements
on a fullscale wind turbine of 17 m diameter. These tests
were mainly concerned with visualising the flow
around a localised region of the blade, however.
Visualisation
of the entire wake at full scale
using pulsed lasers presents obvious difficulties.
The PIV equipment at Edinburgh
University,
as used in the present study, is applicable
to
scale model rotors only, but is capable of capturing images from the near wake up to 40 downstream. The experiments
were carried out in a
two-dimensional
water flume, 10 m long by
400 mm wide (Fig. 4). The use of water, rather
than air, as the flow medium greatly facilitates
seeding and illumination.
The flume has glass
walls and base, and is filled with water to a
depth of 750 mm. A steady current
can be
established in the tank, driven by a water pump,
and recirculated
via an external pipe system.
A continuous
wave (CW) laser was used in
conjunction
with a scanning
beam system of
illumination
to produce the laser sheet (Gray
et al., 1991). The laser sheet was directed
through the base of the flume, illuminating
a
two dimensional
cross-section
of the flow. The
model turbine rig was placed in the tank, with
the rotor aligned normal to the upstream flow.
The water was seeded with conifer pollen of
average diameter
70 pm; concentrations
were
maintained
at a level that ensured a high density
of non-overlapping
particles on the resulting
film record.
The model rotor (Fig. 5) was a l/lOOth scale
replica of the three-bladed
Vestas (Windmatic)
WM19S. The blades were manufactured
from
rigid plastic, using a numerically
controlled
cutter. Despite the small scale, the model blades
were accurately
profiled with a NACA-632XX
Fig. 5. Scale model of the WM19S rotor used in the laboratory test.
section, with twist, chord and thickness distributions based on the manufacturers original drawings. The turbine model was driven in the tank
by an electric motor, located on a frame above
the water level, and connected to the rotor shaft
by a toothed belt running inside a hollow tube,
effectively an inverted
tower. In order to
reduce the disturbance
to the rotor wake caused
by the tower, it was streamlined
with a foam
plastic
shroud
of symmetric
aerofoil
crosssection.
The image recording equipment
consisted of
and
a
a rotating-mirror
shifting
system,
Hasselblad
large format camera. The purpose
of the shifting system was to superpose a known
626
J. Whale et al.
velocity component
onto the recorded image in
order to (a) eliminate directional
ambiguity
in
the final vector maps, and (b) increase
the
dynamic
range of the system. The shifting
sequence was synchronised
with an index pulse
from a position encoder, connected to the turbine drive motor.
For reasons of geometry,
the image shiftvelocity was non-uniform
over the flow field. A
correction
therefore had to be applied to the
processed results, based on a calibration
of the
shifting system. In order to separate the effects
of image-shifting
distortion
from the flow
recording of the wake, a number of PIV photographs were taken of still water in the tank. The
still-water
records
were then averaged
and
subtracted
pointwise from the vector fields of
the turbine wakes in order to correct for shift
velocities.
2.2.2. Replicating
full-scale
conditions. The
experiments were aimed at reproducing
the fullscale measurements
taken on Samos with the
Vestas WM19S. Thus, the model was positioned
with the rotor centreline at a distance of 0.42R
from the laser sheet. Assuming an axially symmetric wake, data were thus recorded at an
equivalent offset position from the centre of the
wake to the readings taken at full scale (see
Section 2.1.2.).
In order to control the ambient turbulence
level, turbulence
manipulators
were placed
upstream
of the rotor. These consisted
of a
parallel system of baffles comprising of an aluminium honeycomb
section, a perforated plate
and a fine mesh (see Fig. 4). The honeycomb
acted as a flow straightener,
with the perforated
plate serving to impose a particular
upstream
profile. Final smoothing
was provided by the
fine mesh screen.
From the Samos experiments,
it was concluded that the wind speed and turbulence
intensity were fairly constant across the rotor
disk. The turbulence
manipulators
were therefore chosen to produce a uniform
upstream
profile with low turbulence.
A perforated plate
with 32 mm diameter holes and regular pitch of
38 mm was placed 500 mm downstream
of the
honeycomb
section. A fine mesh screen of 18
lines/inch was placed a further 800 mm downstream, and 1200 mm upstream of the rotor.
As noted above, an important
feature of this
work was to investigate whether tests at model
scale could yield valid data regarding the performance of full-scale wind turbines. It was therefore decided to replicate as accurately as possible
the conditions pertaining to the full-scale measurements on Samos, with the obvious exception
of scale. In this way, any discrepancies
between
the full-scale measurements
and those obtained
from the PIV tests could be attributed either to
scale effect, i.e. Reynolds
number,
or tunnel
blockage, rather than an improperly characterised experiment.
Geometric similarity between the model and
the full-scale machine was attained by the use of
an accurate replica. Kinematic
similarity was
achieved by running the model at an appropriate
range of tip speed ratios A, using the motor speed
controller. The water current velocity was maintained constant throughout,
with its value accurately determined from the PIV analysis.
A further consideration
was that, while the
full-scale results were based on time-averaged
recordings, the PIV vector maps corresponded
to instantaneous
wake images. It was therefore necessary to introduce
equivalent
timeaveraging in the latter case. This was done by
repeating each PIV test a number of times, with
the camera exposure synchronised
to a different
rotor position in each case, and taking a numerical average of the resulting vector maps. Ideally,
i.e. to achieve stationarity
of the averaged map,
this procedure would have been repeated a very
large number of times, with the rotor photographed at positions evenly distributed
around
the disk. In practice, the shifting sequence was
synchronised
to photograph
the blades in just
6 azimuthal
positions,
20 apart.
For a
three-bladed
rotor, this discretizes one whole
revolution.
Post-analysis
averaging of these six
exposures
yields
six vector
maps
which,
averaged together, provide the equivalent
of a
time-averaged
wake image.
2.2.3. Results and analysis. The PIV photographs thus obtained
were processed to yield
two-dimensional
velocity vector maps of the
type shown in Fig. 6, where each vector indicates
the velocity in the flow at that point. The figure
shows the wake behind the WM19S model
operating at a tip speed ratio of 4.8; the area of
reduced velocity behind the rotor is clearly seen
in this image. Velocity maps were obtained at
five tip speed ratios in the range 1.6-4.8.
The cross-wake profile at l.lD (offset position
0.42R) downstream
of the model rotor was
found by averaging
four columns
from the
vector map corresponding
to downstream
distances 1.0-1.20 from the rotor to account for
any uncertainty
in the downstream
position.
The results are shown in Fig. 7, as velocity ratio
of a wind turbine
621
Fig. 6. PIV velocity vector map of wake behind WM19S model rotor at i. =4.8. The vertical cross-section
of the wake is evident as a downstream
region of reduced velocity, and lies 0.42R from the centreline to
correspond
to the full-scale experimental
case.
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-4
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-3
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3
I
4
y2/R
Fig. 7. Wake velocity ratio profiles at l.lD from PIV experiments. The curves for L=4.2, 3.2, 2.7 and 1.6
have been shifted upwards by 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4, respectively, for clarity.
628
J. Whale et al.
Cross-wake
-1.0
1.2
;
0.7
I (a)
320
-0.5
,
330
distance,
I
340
Wind
OeooO
PIV
Full
direction
-1.0
;
-0.5
1.0
data
(h=2.7)
scale
I
360
I
350
Cross-wake
1.2
y/R
0.5
0.0
(h=3.0)
I
370
(deg.)
distance,
y/R
0.5
0.0
I
380
oe-
PIV
Full-scale
1.0
data
(h=3.2)
(h=3.3)
,
9
0
\
\
B.m,
0.7l0,
320
330
340
Wind
Lf
/
350
direction
360
370
380
(deg.)
Fig. 8. Comparison
of velocity ratio profiles at l.lD for the
WM19S rotor, comparing
PIV and full-scale (FS) data: (a);
R,s=3.0, &,,=2.7,
(b); I,s=3.3,
l,,v=3.2.
of a wind turbine
629
1.0
1.1
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I
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b
. . *. . 95% confidence
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data
x_XXXY Full-scale
data
A&AM
MInimum
ratios
o~21~
intervals
for
full
scale
(h&3
data
0.3
r---.
3.0
Tip
speed
-I
3.5
ratio
4.0
4.5
5.0
Fig. 9. Comparison
of centreline velocity ratios at l.lD for
full-scale and PIV data. Best fit lines are drawn through the
corresponding
points. The crosses are median values for the
full-scale data; the triangles are subjectively chosen minimum values of the same data.
245
265
265
305
325
630
J. Whale et al.
high 2 values, with a minimum at an intermediate value of A= 3.3. This effect of somewhat
lower turbulence levels at intermediate 2, discussed above, is seen clearly in Fig. 12.
Moreover, the flat profiles of Fig. 11(b) probably reflect the wake meandering and cross-wake
smoothing of full-scale data. The local maxima
of wake turbulence at approximately Iv/RI= 0.6
(Fig. 11(b)) are related to tip-vorticity induced
turbulence.
The spectral analysis of the full-scale data has
already revealed fundamental variations of the
turbulent structure of the near wake as the tip
speed ratio varies (Papadopoulos et al., 1995);
not only is the wake intensity small at low il
values, but furthermore, the expected turbulent
characteristics of the wake are absent. The PIV
results demonstrate a large growth in turbulent
energy in the centre of the wake with increasing
2. This appears to be caused by the strong tip
vortex structure.
A comparison of individual cross-wake profiles of turbulent intensity ratios (Fig. 12) reveals
a proximity of laboratory and full-scale values
in the central part of the wake. However, the
shape of the full-scale profile again implies the
effect of wake meandering. Figure 13 presents
the comparison for the centreline wake turbulence as a function of the tip speed ratio. Using
spline interpolation, a smoothed curve is plotted
through the PIV data. The comparison is good
for A14 (Fig. 13(a)). The discrepancy for the
highest A value could be related to the limited
amount of full-scale data. Figure 13(a) was
reconstructed to include points of maximum
ratios for both full- and laboratory-scale data.
The full-scale data is seen to lie more closely to
the PIV curve (Fig. 13(b)), supporting the possibility that measurements from the wind park
are displaced because of wake meandering.
3.3. Region of acceleratedjow
A further observation, common to both the
full-scale and laboratory results, is that a region
of accelerated flow exists outside the wake
boundary. Referring again to Fig. 7, the velocity
ratio clearly rises above unity for Iv/RI> 1, with
the effect becoming more pronounced as L
increases. At an experimental scale this tendency
may be exaggerated by a blockage in the tank,
but it is clear from Fig. 2 that it also occurs at
full scale. Similar findings have also been
reported by Taylor (1990).
A simple explanation for the region of
accelerated flow is that the rotor partially
of a wind turbine
631
w
h=1.6
m
h=2.7
-ttcH x=3.2
A-A-+++h=4.2
M
h=4.8
8.0
"07.0
k-
d 6.0
3
21
5.0
h
c,
.I-#
; 4.0
aJ
2 3.0
%2.0
2
k 1.0
fz
0.0
-4
-3I
-2I
-1I
0I
cross-wake
3.0
dista:ce,
yZ/H
w
h=3.0
w
h=.3.;5
t-+--cf-+ h=4.0
o.03*F-T---1
Wind
3I
I
4
(b)
340
360
direction
3;;
380
(deg.)
Fig. 11. (a) Wake turbulent intensity ratio profiles at l.lD from PIV experiments for five i, values. The
curves for 1= 2.7, 3.2, 4.2 and 4.8 have been shifted upwards by 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively to separate them
from each other. (b) Wake turbulent intensity ratio profiles at l.lD from full-scale data for three A values.
4. CONCLUSIONS
A comparison has been presented of PIV
wake measurements from a three-bladed model
wind turbine with data captured in the wake of
two full-scale machines. The shape of the PIV
velocity profiles differed in significant respects
from the measurements obtained from the
WM19S machine on Samos Island. In general,
the PIV data yielded narrow, deep velocity
J. Whale et al.
632
Cross-wake
distance,
4.0
y/R
OoooO
P
lo****
PIV
Full
data
b3.5
(h=3.2)
scale
PIV data
x x x x x Full-scale
data
(h=3.3)
I 1.6
0)
2.0 -
2 1.5 4;
U 1.0 d
.*
z
s 0.5 G
(a)
o.03803800
Wind
direction
0.0
(deg.)
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Tip speed
3.5
ratio,
I
5.0
I
4.5
I
5.0
4.0
4.5
4.0
Om
xxxxx
5
profiles
whereas
measurements
from
the
WM19S produced wider profiles with homogeneous central portions.
Large discrepancies
in
centreline velocity deficit between the PIV data
and the WM19S results occurred at high tip
speed ratio. Closer agreement in velocity deficit
and profile shape was found when the PIV
results were compared with measurements
made
on the flat terrain of the Vestas V20/100 site
at Ris0.
A number of factors have been discussed to
account for the discrepancies at high A, of which
the difference in scale is the most obvious candidate. The Reynolds number of the PIV tests is
lower than full-scale by a factor of 1000; as a
consequence,
the boundary
layer flow on the
model blades will differ from that at full-scale,
particularly
regarding
the stall angle and the
transition to turbulence (Galbraith
et al., 1987).
The influence of the Reynolds number on the
near wake properties
is not well understood,
however, and their sensitivity to scale may well
be less significant than blade flow. Certainly the
bulk properties of the wake further downstream,
which is fully turbulent,
are less sensitive to
Reynolds number.
The discrepancy between model and full-scale
results may also be attributable
to (a) blockage
in the water tank, or (b) uncertainties
pertaining
to the full-scale experiment.
In the latter case,
for instance, the complex terrain of Samos Island
may produce large-scale inhomogeneities
that
affect the wake properties. It is possible that a
highly turbulent
wake (such as the turbulent
1.0
_3.5
.$
,m3.0
h
PIV data
Full-scale
data
.;
; 2.5 z
.d
; 2.0 -
Pj 1.5 4
_d
;
/p
OX
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6
9 0.5 r
0.0
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I
1.5
I
2.0
I
2.5
1
3.0
Tip speed
I
3.5
ratio,
I
4.0
number
and tank blockage
require
further
investigation.
Although
it would be unwise to draw too
many firm conclusions
at this stage, bearing in
mind the difference in scale of the two experiments and the limitations
of the method in each
case, the further use of PIV in this field seems
to be clearly indicated. It is inferred that a more
careful assessment of the effect of turbulence, in
terms of its spectral content
rather than its
integral
levels, on the wake properties
is
necessary.
A number
of investigations
suggest themselves. In particular,
the study of the change in
wake properties in the transition
from low to
high windspeed (i.e. high to low tip speed ratio)
is of interest. This work is planned, and will be
based on further analysis
of the turbulence
content
of the measured
wakes. Analysis
of
wake vorticity, readily available from the PIV
vector maps, is being undertaken.
In this case
it may be possible to investigate the properties
of the wake under conditions
where simple
analytic models for wind turbine rotors, e.g.
actuator-disc
theory, fail, for example where the
rotor is heavily stalled, or where the thrust
coefficient exceeds unity.
In these respects, it is hoped that further
comparisons
of PIV measurements
and fullscale data will be forthcoming
shortly.
NOMENCLATURE
D
R=D/2
YIR
d
u
UO
0
1
Acknowledgements-The
authors would like to extend their
thanks to the following people: Jean-Baptiste
Richon and
Iain Morrison of Edinburgh University Physics Department,
for design of the image shifting system and assessment of
image shifting errors, respectively, and John Korsgaard
of
LM Glasfiber A/S, and Tom Pedersen of Vestas A/S, for
supplying
details of the WM19S wind turbine and rotor
blades.
The University of Athens research group would also like
to thank the Greek Ministry
of Industry,
Energy and
of a wind turbine
633
Technology
for financial support of the Samos experimental campaign.
Finally, both the teams at Athens and Edinburgh
would
like to express their thanks to the British Council, for
funding their ongoing collaboration.
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A. L. (1981) Preliminary
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