Abstract

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 m2 using 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.

Details

Title
Probing wind-turbine/atmosphere interactions at utility scale: Novel insights from the EOLOS wind energy research station
Author
Hong, J 1 ; Guala, M 2 ; Chamorro, L P 3 ; Sotiropoulos, F 2 

 Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 Third Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 111 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA 
 Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 Third Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, 500 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA 
 Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 Third Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA; Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, 1206 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA 
Publication year
2014
Publication date
Jun 2014
Publisher
IOP Publishing
ISSN
17426588
e-ISSN
17426596
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2576696235
Copyright
© 2014. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.