Search

The design of rotor blades is based on information about aerodynamic phenomena. An important one is fluid-structure interaction (FSI) which describes the interaction between a flexible object (rotor blade) and the surrounding fluid (wind). However, the acquisition of FSI is complex, and only a few practical concepts are known. This paper presents a measurement setup to acquire real information about the FSI of rotating wind turbines in wind tunnel experiments. The setup consists of two optical measurement systems to simultaneously record fluid (PIV system) and deformation (photogrammetry system) information in one global coordinate system. Techniques to combine both systems temporally and spatially are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the successful application is shown by several experiments. Here, different wind conditions are applied. The experiments show that the new setup can acquire high-quality area-based information about fluid and deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preview measurements of the inflow by turbine-mounted lidar systems can be used to optimise wind turbine performance or alleviate structural loads. However, nacelle-mounted lidars suffer data losses due to unfavourable environmental conditions and laser beam obstruction by the rotating blades. Here, we apply proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to the simulated line-of-sight wind speed measurements of a turbine-mounted scanning lidar obtained from two large eddy simulations. This work aimed at identifying the dominant POD modes that can be used to subsequently derive a reduced-order representation of the turbine inflow. Secondly, we reconstructed the data points lost due to blade passage by using Gappy-POD. We found that only a few modes are required to capture the dynamics of the wind field parameters commonly used for lidar-assisted wind turbine control, such as the effective wind speed, vertical shear and directional misalignment. By evaluating turbine-relevant metrics in the time and frequency domain, we found that a ten-mode reconstruction could accurately describe most spatio-temporal variations in the inflow. Furthermore, a modal interpretation is presented by direct comparison with these wind field parameters. We found that the Gappy-POD method performs substantially better than spatial interpolation techniques, accurately reconstructing up to even 50% of missing data. A POD-based wind field reconstruction offers a trade-off between wind field reconstruction techniques requiring flow assumptions and more complex physics-based representations, offers dimensional reduction and can overcome the blade passage limitation of nacelle-mounted lidar systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To monitor wind turbine vibrations, normal behaviour models are built to predict tower top accelerations and drive-train vibrations. Signal deviations from model prediction are labelled as anomalies and are further investigated. In this paper we assess a stochastic approach to reconstruct the 1 Hz tower top acceleration signal, which was measured in a wind turbine located at the wind farm Alpha Ventus in the German North Sea. We compare the resulting data reconstruction with that of a model based on a neural network, which has been previously reported as a data-mining algorithm suitable for reconstructing this signal. Our results present evidence that the stochastic approach outperforms the neural network in the high frequency domain (1 Hz). Although neural network retrieves accurate step-forward predictions, with low mean square errors, the stochastic approach predictions better preserve the statistics and the frequency components of the original signal, retaining high accuracy levels. The implementation of our stochastic approach is available as open source code and can easily be adapted for other situations involving stochastic data reconstruction. Based on our findings we argue that such an approach could be implemented in signal reconstruction for monitoring purposes or for abnormal behaviour detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doppler LiDARs have become flexible and versatile remote sensing devices for wind energy applications. The possibility to measure radial wind speed components contemporaneously at multiple distances is an advantage with respect to meteorological masts. However, these measurements must be filtered due to the measurement geometry, hard targets and atmospheric conditions. To ensure a maximum data availability while producing low measurement errors, we introduce a dynamic data filter approach that conditionally decouples the dependency of data availability with increasing range. The new filter approach is based on the assumption of self-similarity, that has not been used so far for LiDAR data filtering. We tested the accuracy of the dynamic data filter approach together with other commonly used filter approaches, from research and industry applications. This has been done with data from a long-range pulsed LiDAR installed at the offshore wind farm 'alpha ventus'. There, an ultrasonic anemometer located approximately 2.8 km from the LiDAR was used as reference. The analysis of around 1.5 weeks of data shows, that the error of mean radial velocity can be minimised for wake and free stream conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual-Doppler lidar is a powerful remote sensing technique that can accurately measure horizontal wind speeds and enable the reconstruction of two-dimensional wind fields based on measurements from two separate lidars. Previous research has provided a framework of dual-Doppler algorithms for processing both radar and lidar measurements, but their application to wake measurements has not been addressed in detail yet. The objective of this paper is to reconstruct two-dimensional wind fields of wind turbine wakes and assess the performance of dual-Doppler lidar scanning strategies, using the newly developed Multiple-Lidar Wind Field Evaluation Algorithm (MuLiWEA). This processes non-synchronous dual-Doppler lidar measurements and solves the horizontal wind field with a set of linear equations, also considering the mass continuity equation. MuLiWEA was applied on simulated measurements of a simulated wind turbine wake, with two typical dual-Doppler lidar measurement scenarios. The results showed inaccuracies caused by the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the measurements in all directions, related to the ground-based scanning of a wind field at wind turbine hub height. Additionally, MuLiWEA was applied on a real dual-Doppler lidar measurement scenario in the German offshore wind farm “alpha ventus”. It was concluded that the performance of both simulated and real lidar measurement scenarios in combination with MuLiWEA is promising. Although the accuracy of the reconstructed wind fields is compromised by the practical limitations of an offshore dual-Doppler lidar measurement setup, the performance shows sufficient accuracy to serve as a basis for 10 min average steady wake model validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind measurements using classical profiling lidars suffer from systematic measurement errors in complex terrain. Moreover, their ability to measure turbulence quantities is unsatisfactory for wind-energy applications. This paper presents results from a measurement campaign during which multiple WindScanners were focused on one point next to a reference mast in complex terrain. This multi-lidar (ML) technique is also compared to a profiling lidar using the Doppler beam swinging (DBS) method. First- and second-order statistics of the radial wind velocities from the individual instruments and the horizontal wind components of several ML combinations are analysed in comparison to sonic anemometry and DBS measurements. The results for the wind speed show significantly reduced scatter and directional error for the ML method in comparison to the DBS lidar. The analysis of the second-order statistics also reveals a significantly better correlation for the ML technique than for the DBS lidar, when compared to the sonic. However, the probe volume averaging of the lidars leads to an attenuation of the turbulence at high wave numbers. Also the configuration (i.e., angles) of the WindScanners in the ML method seems to be more important for turbulence measurements. In summary, the results clearly show the advantages of the ML technique in complex terrain and indicate that it has the potential to achieve significantly higher accuracy in measuring turbulence quantities for wind-energy applications than classical profiling lidars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method for reconstructing the wake wind field of a wind turbine based on planar light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scans crossing the wake transversally in the vertical and horizontal directions. Volumetric measurements enable the study of wake characteristics in these two directions. Due to a lack of highly resolved wind speed measurements as reference data, we evaluate the reconstruction in a synthetic environment and determine the reconstruction errors. The wake flow of a multi-megawatt wind turbine is calculated within a 10-min large-eddy simulation (LES) for high-thrust loading conditions. We apply a numerical LiDAR simulator to this wake wind field to achieve realistic one-dimensional velocity data. We perform a nacelle-based set-up with combined plan position indicator and range height indicator scans with eight scanning velocities each. We temporally up-sample the synthetic LiDAR data with a weighted combination of forward- and backward-oriented space–time conversion to retrospectively extract high-resolution wake characteristic dynamics. These dynamics are used to create a dynamic volumetric wake deficit. Finally, we reconstruct the dynamic wake wind field in three spatial dimensions by superposing an ambient wind field with the dynamic volumetric wake deficit. These results demonstrate the feasibility of wake field reconstruction using long-range LiDAR measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement campaigns in wind energy research are becoming increasingly complex, which has exacerbated the difficulty of taking optimal measurements using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems. Compromises between spatial and temporal resolutions are always necessary in the study of heterogeneous flows, like wind turbine wakes. Below, we develop a method for space-time conversion that acts as a temporal fluid-dynamic interpolation without incurring the immense computing costs of a 4D flow solver. We tested this space-time conversion with synthetic LiDAR data extracted from a large-eddy-simulation (LES) of a neutrally stable single-turbine wake field. The data was synthesised with a numerical LiDAR simulator. Then, we performed a parametric study of 11 different scanning velocities. We found that temporal error dominates the mapping error at low scanning speeds and that spatial error becomes dominant at fast scanning speeds. Our space-time conversion method increases the temporal resolution of the LiDAR data by a factor 2.4 to 40 to correct the scan-containing temporal shift and to synchronise the scan with the time code of the LES data. The mean-value error of the test case is reduced to a minimum relative error of 0.13% and the standard-deviation error is reduced to a minimum of 0.6% when the optimal scanning velocity is used. When working with the original unprocessed LiDAR measurements, the space-time-conversion yielded a maximal error reduction of 69% in the mean value and 58% in the standard deviation with the parameters identified with our analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ongoing increase in the size of wind turbines, experimental investigations have become more complicated and expensive. Therefore, computational models have proven to be a viable solution for design purposes. This article aims to validate CFD simulations of an experimental model wind turbine (MoWiTO 1.8) using Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) and Improved DDES (IDDES) turbulence modelling approaches. For the purpose of validation, integral quantities (such as power, thrust, torque and blade-root bending moment in the flapwise direction) measured in the wind tunnel are compared with numerical results obtained with OpenFOAM. In general, the computational results show a very good agreement with the measurements for most of the monitored quantities. In particular, the blade-root bending moment presents the largest difference, taking into account that the simulation assumes the turbine blades are rigid. Nevertheless, the simulation does achieve in recreating the turbulent behavior as can be evidenced by the Power Spectral Density graphs, and the wake's velocity measurements. In general, the IDDES turbulent model achieves a better agreement to the experimental results, while maintaining a very similar computational time as the DDES model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very short-term forecasts of wind power provide electricity market participants with extremely valuable information, especially in power systems with high penetration of wind energy. In very short-term horizons, statistical methods based on historical data are frequently used. This paper explores the use of dual-Doppler radar observations of wind speed and direction to derive five-minute ahead deterministic and probabilistic forecasts of wind power. An advection-based technique is introduced, which estimates the predictive densities of wind speed at the target wind turbine. In a case study, the proposed methodology is used to forecast the power generated by seven turbines in the North Sea with a temporal resolution of one minute. The radar-based forecast outperforms the persistence and climatology benchmarks in terms of overall forecasting skill. Results indicate that when a large spatial coverage of the inflow of the wind turbine is available, the proposed methodology is also able to generate reliable density forecasts. Future perspectives on the application of Doppler radar observations for very short-term wind power forecasting are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]