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James L. Tangler
To be presented at the 21st ASME Wind Energy
Conference
Reno, Nevada
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The Nebulous Art of Using Wind-Tunnel Airfoil Data for Predicting Rotor Performance
James L. Tangler
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
1617 Cole Boulevard
Golden, Colorado, 80401-3393
2
1.4 0.35
in lieu of a 2-D correction. Values of Cn and Ct at the 1.2
five spanwise stations were derived from 22 pressure
Lift Coefficient
1 0.25
taps per station. Integration of the average pressure
0.8
between adjacent taps projected onto the chord line
0.6 0.15
provided values of Cn. Integration of the same average
Drag Coefficeint
pressure projected onto an axis orthogonal to the chord 0.4
line provided values of Ct. Rae and Pope12 describe this 0.2 0.05
4
The zero angle of attack, lift-coefficient of the OSU CER/NASA data
data is noticeably lower than the other two data sets and 2
Delft airfoil data, flat plate
OSU airfoil data, flat plate
the Eppler16 code prediction. This leads to a lower CSU airfoil data, flat plate
3
14 14
10 10
Rotor Power, kW
Rotor Power, kW
8 8
6 6
4 4
CER/NASA
CER/NASA
LSWT, OSU data, 20 degrees PROP93, OSU data, flat plate
2 2
LSWT, OSU data, flat plate WTPERF, OSU data, flat plate
LSWT, averaged power curves LSWT, OSU data, flat plate
0 0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0
Wind Speed, m/s
Wind Speed, m/s
Fig. 5. Error in predicted performance resulting from Fig. 6. Predicted performance comparison and NASA
2-D stall. Ames data.
may give better correlation with test data. Some in helping to understand the reasons for the discrepancy
evidence of this can be seen in the power curve of Fig. between the predicted and measured power curves. In
5. The power was predicted with LSWT using the 2-D this study, comparisons of angle of attack (α)
OSU airfoil data with and without the abrupt drop in distributions relative to the airfoil chord line, normal
lift coefficient at 20 and 16 degrees, respectively. The force coefficient (Cn), and tangential force coefficient
abrupt drop in Cl results in an abnormally rapid fall off (Ct), provided insight for the discrepancies between
in peak power relative to measured data. A gradual performance prediction codes, and discrepancies
transition to flat plate theory at 16 degrees results in an between predictions and measured results. The
overprediction of peak power. When both of the following equations were used to calculate the values
LSWT predictions with the measured power curve are Cn = Cl(cosα) + Cd(sinα) (Eq. 1)
ratios) up to 8 m/s (26 ft/s) both BEM and LSWT are Ct = Cl(sinα) − Cd(cosα) (Eq. 2)
wind speeds, both BEM and LSWT underpredict the A comparison of predicted angle of attack distributions
power, largely because of the omission of a stall-delay and measured inflow distributions are shown in Fig. 7
model. At high wind speeds, predicted peak power with for wind speeds from 5 to 19 m/s (16 to 62 ft/s). At low
LSWT is closer to measured peak power. In this wind speeds little difference is seen between WTPERF
region, BEM theory can be expected to result in and LSWT, other than at the tip, where the radial
excessive angle of attack distributions at high wind cosine distribution of blade segments used in LSWT
speeds as a result of the uniform inflow assumption. results in a prediction close to the tip (r/R = 0.99).
The slight difference in peak power between the two However, as the wind speed increases above 10 m/s (33
BEM codes, WTPERF and PROP93, is due to different ft/s), WTPERF predicts an increasingly higher angle of
versions of the Prandtl tip loss models. attack relative to LSWT. The reason for this higher
angle of attack is the uniform inflow assumption
Blade-Element Data Comparisons associated with BEM theory2,16. LSWT is also seen to
Blade-element data comparisons prove to be invaluable
4
50 2.2
45 2.0
tip pitch = 3 degrees toward feather tip pitch = 3 degrees toward feather
40 NASA 19 m/s 1.8
NASA 13 m/s
35 1.6
NASA 10 m/s
NASA 7 m/s NASA, 7 m/s
NASA 5 m/s 1.4 LSWT, OSU data, flat plate, 7 m/s
30 WTPERF 19 m/s WTPERF, OSU data, flat plate, 7 m/s
WTPERF 16 m/s
1.2
25 WTPERF 13 m/s
WTPERF 10 m/s
WTPERF 7 m/s 1.0
20 WTPERF 5 m/s
LSWT 19 m/s
0.8
LSWT 16 m/s
15 LSWT 13 m/s
LSWT 10 m/s 0.6
LSWT 7 m/s
10 LSWT 5 m/s
0.4
5
0.2
0 0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Radial Station, r/R
Radial Station, r/R
in Fig. 8 for wind speeds of 7, 10, and 13 m/s (23, 33, 1.6
5
0.25
measurement. At 10 and 13 m/s (33 and 43 ft/s) the
tip pitch = 3 degrees toward feather
inner half of the blade is predicted to be largely stalled
0.20
and is not in agreement with the measured data. The
Tangential Force Coefficient, CT
NASA, 7 m/s
WTPERF, OSU, flat plate, 7 m/s drop in Ct to negative values implies much higher than
LSWT, OSU, flat plate, 7 m/s
0.15 predicted drag values associated with an inflow
phenomenon not modeled in the predictions. This large
0.10
drop in Ct may be the result of an attached vortex
above the blade that contributes substantial drag.
0.05
Conclusions
6
10
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References and Twisted Blade for the NREL Combined
Experiment Rotor,” Subcontract No. XAF-4-14076-03,
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2
Simms, D., et al., “Unsteady Aerodynamics
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Comparison of Predictions to Measurements,” Testing,” Wiley & Sons, 1984.
NREL/TP-500-29494, June 2001.
13
Somers, D.M., “Design and Experimental Results for
3
Buhl, M.L., “WT_PERF User’s Guide,” NREL, 2000. the S809 Airfoil,” NREL/SR-440-6918, 1997.
4 14
Kocurek, D., “Lifting Surface Performance Analysis Reuss, R.R., et al. “Effects of Grit Roughness and
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5 15
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6 16
McCarty, J., “PROP93 User’s Guide,” Alternative Eppler, R., “Airfoil Program System, PROFIL98,”
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7 17
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8
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9
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Dept., Univ. of Ill., 2001.
7
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