An Experimental Investigation on Dynamic Wind Loads Acting on a Wind Turbine Model in Atomspheric Boundary Layer Winds

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the dynamic wind loads acting on a wind turbine model sited in atmospheric boundary layer winds. The experimental studies are conducted in a large-scale Aerodynamic/Atmospheric Boundary Layer (AABL) Wind Tunnel available at Iowa State University. A three-blade Horizontal Axial Wind Turbine (HAWT) model was placed in atmospheric boundary layer winds with different mean and turbulence characteristics to simulate the situations in onshore and offshore wind farms. In addition to measuring dynamic wind loads (both forces and moments) acting on the HAWT model, a high-resolution Particle Image Velocity (PIV) system is used to conduct detailed flow field measurements to quantify the characteristics of the turbulent vortex flow in the near wake of the wind turbine model. The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the dynamic wind loads measurements to elucidate underlying physics in order to gain further insight into the characteristics of the dynamic wind loads for for better durability of the wind turbines in atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) winds.