Experimental investigation of the wake recovery characteristics of a wind turbine

ABSTRACT

Wind tunnel experiments have been carried out to study the influence of wind shear and turbulence intensity on the wake recovery characteristics of wind turbines. In this regard, the turbulent inflow with turbulent intensity and wind shear was simulated using a variable-spacing bar grid. In the present study, wake data of the wind turbine was collected by particle image velocimetry. The obtained results demonstrate that the wind turbine ingests lower momentum under turbulent inflow, especially under the hub, which leads to the delay of wake recovery. In addition, the wake recovery and the effect on vortex structure under different inflow conditions are discussed. The tower also plays a due role in it. Then, the wake is analysed from two aspects of momentum exchange and energy transfer. The present study provides a reference for experimental data support for related numerical simulation studies.

KEYWORDS:

• Horizontal axis wind turbine
• wake
• variable-spacing bar grid
• turbulent inflow

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Natural Science Foundation Research Project [grant number: 2020MS05026, 2019MS05022], the Doctor Fund project of Inner Mongolia University of Technology [grant number: BS2020033] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 52066014, 51966013], and we are grateful for this.