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Departamento de Estructuras, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fsicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba,
Av. Velez Sarsfield N 1611, CP 5000, Cordoba, Argentina
b
Departamento de Mecanica, Facultad de Ingeniera, Universidad Nacional de Ro, Cuarto, Ruta Nacional 36, Km 601,
CP 5800, Ro Cuarto, Argentina
c
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientficas y Tecnicas, Avenida Rivadavia 1917, CP C1033AAJ,
Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
article info
abstract
Article history:
In the present work, the non-linear and unsteady aerodynamic behavior of large hori-
zontal-axis wind turbines is analyzed. The flowfield around the wind turbine is simu-
lated with the general non-linear unsteady vortex-lattice method, widely used in
Keywords:
understand how the existence of the landsurface boundary layer and the presence of
Large horizontal-axis
the turbine support tower, affect its aerodynamic efficiency. The capability to capture
wind turbines
these phenomena is a novel aspect of the computational tool developed in the present
Unsteady aerodynamics
effort.
Vortex-lattice method
1.
2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
* Corresponding author. Departamento de Estructuras, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Fsicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de
Cordoba, Av. Velez Sarsfield N 1611, CP 5000, Cordoba, Argentina. Tel.: 54 351 4334141x163.
E-mail address: cgebhardt@efn.uncor.edu (C.G. Gebhardt).
0360-3199/$ see front matter 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.12.089
6006
2.
2.1.
Consider a 3D incompressible flow of an inviscid fluid generated due to the unsteady motion of the rotor blades. The
absolute velocity of a fluid particle which occupies the position R at instant t is denoted by V(R;t). Since the flow is irrotational outside the boundary layers and the wakes, the
velocity field can be expressed as the gradient of a total
velocity potential FR; t as follows:
VR; t VFR; t
jRj/N
jRj/N
(1)
The spatial/temporal evolution of the total velocity potential is governed by the continuity equation for incompressible
flows.
V2 Fr; t 0
(2)
(3)
b is the
where VS is the velocity of the boundary surface S, and n
b vary in space and
unit normal vector. In general, VS and n
time. A regularity condition at infinity must also be imposed.
This second BC requires that the flow disturbance, due to the
(4)
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2.2.
1
4p
Z Z
SR0 ;t
UR0 ; t R R0
jR R0 j2
dSR0 ; t
(5)
(6)
In the UVLM, the continuous bound-vortex sheets are discretized into a lattice of short, straight vortex segments of
constant circulation Gi t. These segments divide the surface of
the body into a number of elements of area. The model is
completed by joining free-vortex lines, representing the
continuous free-vortex sheets, to the bound-vortex lattice
along the edges of separation; such as the trailing edges and
tips of the rotor blades. Experience with the vortex-lattice
method suggests that the geometric shape of the elements in
the lattice affects the accuracy and the rate of convergence. It
was found that rectangular elements work better than other
shapes. Consequently, as much as possible we use rectangular,
or nearly rectangular, elements everywhere except in those
places where we are forced to use triangular elements: for
example, at the hub of the windmill. Each element of area in
the lattice is enclosed by a loop of vortex segments. To reduce
the size of the problem, we can consider each element to be
enclosed by a closed loop of vortex segments having the same
circulation. Then the requirement of spatial conservation of
circulation is automatically satisfied. These loop circulations
are denoted by Gi(t). Because the vortex sheets are approximated by a lattice, the no-penetration condition given by Eqs.
(3) or (6) can be satisfied at only a finite number of points, the
so-called control points. The control points are the centroids of
the corner points (aerodynamic nodes). The problem consists
of finding the circulations Gi(t) around the discrete vortices on
the bound-lattice such that the velocity field V satisfies conditions (3) or (6) at the control points. In order to find these
circulations, we construct a matrix of aerodynamic influence
coefficients Aij for i; j 1; 2; .; NP where NP is the number of
elements (closed loops of constant vorticity) in the boundlattice. The coefficient Aij represents the normal component of
the velocity at the control point of the ith element associated
with a unit circulation around the vortex of element jth, and is
Fig. 4 Time evolution of the axial force. Influence of the turbine support tower.
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Fig. 5 Time evolution of the produced power. Influence of the turbine support tower.
This approximation for the value of DRt does not need iterations and is stable [7].
NP
X
2.3.
b i;
Aij Gj t VFW VB i $ n
i 1; 2; .; NP
(7)
j1
(8)
Loads computation
(9)
3.
Results
3.1.
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3.2.
Fig. 8 Time evolution of the axial force. Influence of the landsurface boundary layer.
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Fig. 9 Time evolution of the produced power. Influence of the landsurface boundary layer.
4.
Concluding remarks
references
[7] Kandil OA, Mook DT, Nayfeh AH. Non-linear prediction of the
aerodynamic loads on lifting surfaces. Journal of Aircraft
1976;13:228.
[8] Preidikman S, Numerical simulations of interactions among
aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and control systems.
Ph.D. Thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University; 1998.
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