Experimental investigation on the wake interference among wind turbines sited in atmospheric boundary layer winds

We examined experimentally the effects of incoming surface wind on the turbine wake and the wake interference among upstream and downstream wind turbines sited in atmospheric boundary layer（ABL） winds. The experiment was conducted in a large-scale ABL wind tunnel with scaled wind turbine models mounted in different incoming surface winds simulating the ABL winds over typical offshore/onshore wind farms. Power outputs and dynamic loadings acting on the turbine models and the wake flow characteristics behind the turbine models were quantified. The results revealed that the incoming surface winds significantly affect the turbine wake characteristics and wake interference between the upstream and downstream turbines. The velocity deficits in the turbine wakes recover faster in the incoming surface winds with relatively high turbulence levels. Variations of the power outputs and dynamic wind loadings acting on the downstream turbines sited in the wakes of upstream turbines are correlated well with the turbine wakes characteristics. At the same downstream locations, the downstream turbines have higher power outputs and experience greater static and fatigue loadings in the inflow with relatively high turbulence level, suggesting a smaller effect of wake interference for the turbines sited in onshore wind farms.

Effect of blade pitch angle on aerodynamic performance of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources, straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine(S-VAWT) appears to be particularly promising for the shortage of fossil fuel reserves owing to its distinct advantages, but suffers from poor self-starting and low power coefficient. Variable-pitch method was recognized as an attractive solution to performance improvement, thus majority efforts had been devoted into blade pitch angle effect on aerodynamic performance. Taken into account the local flow field of S-VAWT, mathematical model was built to analyze the relationship between power outputs and pitch angle. Numerical simulations on static and dynamic performances of blade were carried out and optimized pitch angle along the rotor were presented. Comparative analyses of fixed pitch and variable-pitch S-VAWT were conducted, and a considerable improvement of the performance was obtained by the optimized blade pitch angle, in particular, a relative increase of the power coefficient by more than 19.3%. It is further demonstrated that the self-starting is greatly improved with the optimized blade pitch angle.

Inertia compensation scheme for wind turbine simulator based on deviation mitigation

Wind turbine simulator(WTS) is an important test rig for validating the control strategies of wind turbines(WT). Since the inertia of WTSs is much smaller than that of WTs, the inertia compensation scheme is usually employed in WTSs for replicating the slow mechanical behavior of WTs. In this paper, it is found that the instability of WTSs applying the inertia compensation scheme,characterized by the oscillation of compensation torque, is caused by the one-step time delay produced in the acceleration observation. Hence, a linear discrete model of WTS considering the time delay of acceleration observation is developed and its stability is analyzed. Moreover, in order to stably simulate WTs with large inertia, an improved inertia compensation scheme, applying a first-order digitalfilter to mitigate deviation response induced by the time delay, is proposed. And, the criterion for selecting the filter coefficients is established based on the stability condition analysis. Finally, the WTS with the proposed scheme is validated by simulations and experiments.