High Reynolds Number Effects on

20MW Wind Turbine Rotor Design

zlem Ceyhan
11.10.2012

www.ecn.nl
The science of making torque from wind conference, 9-11 October 2012, Oldenburg, Germany

Outline

Consequences of upscaling in rotor aerodynamics

Availability of high Reynolds numbers measurements for wind turbine airfoils
High Reynolds number effects on airfoils
High Reynolds number effects on rotor design
Geometry
Cp results
AEP
Modified designs (thicker airfoils)
Conclusions
Final Remarks

How large is a 20MW wind

turbine blade?

Consequences of Upscaling on
Aerodynamics
UPWIND project:
Upscaling from 5MW reference turbine to 20MW wind turbine with Classical Similarity Rules:
Tip speed is constant
Rotational speed is therefore inversely proportional to rotor diameter growth
Dimensions of the blades are scaled linearly
Local velocities along the blade stay the same.

The only change in the aerodynamics is the increase in the local Reynolds numbers!

Re

U= local velocity
c = chord length
= kinematic viscosity

Uc

10,0
8,0

20 MW (252m diameter)

20,0E+06

Chord [m]

7,0
6,0
5,0
4,0
3,0

2,0
1,0

Reynolds Number

5MW (126m diameter;

UPWIND Reference)

24,0E+06

9,0

16,0E+06
12,0E+06
8,0E+06

20MW

4,0E+06

5MW

U=11.5m/s (rated wind speed)

00,0E+00

0,0

0,0

0,2

0,4

0,6

r/R

0,8

1,0

1,2

0,0

0,2

0,4

0,6

r/R

0,8

1,0

1,2

Availability of Cl, Cd and Cm data of the wind

turbine airfoils for high Reynolds numbers

Availability of the wind tunnel test data;

Up to
Re=3x106

Up to Re=6x106, for NACA airfoils

up to Re=9x109 (*)

The effects of very high Reynolds numbers?

(*) Some tests are available for high Re numbers at low Mach numbers of thin NACA profiles coming from 1940s
1- Loftin, K.L.,Jr., Bursnall, W.J., Effects of Variations in Reynolds Number Between 3.0x106 and 25x106 upon the Aerodynamic Characteristics of a number of NACA 6Series Airfoil Sections, NACA-TN-1773, 1948

High Reynolds numbers on aircrafts

90

Transport aircraft airfoils are for transonic, wind

turbine airfoils for subsonic speeds.

o A380

80

Wind turbine airfoils are thicker.

Reynolds Number [millions]

70

During the take off and landing, flaps and/slots are

extracted.

60

o B747
o A350
A340 o o B777
o B787

C17 o
50

Take off and

Landing

40
30

A320 o
o B737

20

10-20 MW
Wind Turbines

10

0
0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1,2

Mach Number

Source : http://www.etw.de; reproduced.

Source of the image: http://en.wikipedia.org/

High Reynolds number effects on airfoils

Reynolds Number Effects: Background

For airfoils;
Solution of BL equations for a flat plate
suggests for laminar flows,

4.91x
Re1x/ 2

For turbulent flows,

0.37 x
Re1x/ 5

: Boundary layer thickness (99% velocity thickness)

High Reynolds number effects on Cl and

Cd performace of (thick) airfoils
1.8

0.02

1.6

0.018

NACA 633018

1.4

Re=9 mil.
Re=20mil.

0.016

Test Re=9mil

0.014

1.2

Test Re=20mil

0.012

Cd

Cl

Test Re=20mil.

0.8

0.01

Test Re=9mil.

0.6

rfoil Re=9mil

0.4

rfoil Re=20mil

0.008

0.006
0.004

0.2

0.002

0
0

10

15

20

-1.6

Angle of Attack

-1.2

-0.8

-0.4

Cl

0.4

0.8

1.2

1.6

0.01

0.8

Re=9 mil.

0.7

Re=20mil.
Test Re=9mil

0.008

0.6

Test Re=20mil

0.4
0.3

Suction Side Re=9 mil

0.006

Pressure Side Re=9 mil

Cd

Xtr

0.5

Suction Side Re=20mil

0.2

0.004

Pressure side Re=20mil

0.1
0.002

0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

Cl

0.8

1.2

1.4

-0.8

-0.4

Cl

0.4

0.8

High Reynolds number effects on Cl and Cd

performance of thick airfoils (RFOIL predicted)
2

DU91-W2-250

1.5

1.5

1
Re=7mil. Clean

Cl

Cl

1
Re=7mil. Rough

0.5

Re=7mil. Clean
Re=7mil. Rough

Re=20mil. Clean

0.5

Re=20mil. Clean

Re=20mil. Rough

Re=20mil. Rough

0
0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0
-10

-5

10

15

20

-0.5

-0.5

-1

AoA

Cd

DU97-W-300

1.5

0.01

0.02

0.03 Cd 0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

1.5
Re=7mil. Clean
1

Re=7mil. Rough

Cl

Re=20mil. Clean
0.5

Cl

Re=7mil. Clean
Re=7mil. Rough

0.5

Re=20mil. Clean
Re=20mil. Rough

-0.5

0
-5

10

15

20
-1

-0.5

AoA

-1.5

Re=20mil. Rough

0.08

High Reynolds number effects on 20MW wind

turbine rotor design:

High Reynolds number effects on rotor

design: Methodology
Airfoil Data for high Re numbers
Existing airfoil Cl and Cd data is corrected for
high Reynolds number effects by using RFOIL.
Cl , Re Cl , Retest Cl , RFOIL

Cl , RFOIL Cl , RFOIL , Re Cl , RFOIL , Retest

A new airfoil database is generated by using

max. Re number of 25 million.

Rotor Design
BEM coupled with gradient based optimization
method.
Prandtl tip loss corrections
Turbulent wake state corrections
Corrections for 3D effects due to rotation
Airfoil data is read from an airfoil
database
Golden search optimization algorithm
Cost function is maximizing the annual
yield for the given wind conditions

max yield pU , PU , cr , r , g r

High Reynolds number effects on rotor

design: Geometry
8.00

10.00
Classical Upscaled WT

9.00

Classical Upscaled WT
7.00

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

8.00
6.00

Absolute Thickness [m]

6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00

4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00

1.00

0.00

0.00
0

20

40

60

Radius [m]

80

100

120

140

40

60

80

100

120

140

60

% Chord Reduction

Classical Upscaled WT
14.00

20

Radius [m]

16.00

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00

Design with UPWIND Airfoils (7 mil)

50

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

40
30
20
10

Radius [m]

120

140

95

87

79

71

63

55

47

Blade Radius [m]

126

100

123

80

119

60

115

40

111

20

103

0
-2.00

39

0.00

33

25

Twist angle []

5.00

29

Chord [m]

7.00

0,50

0,50

0,49

0,49

0,48

0,48

0,47

0,47

0,46

0,46

CP

CP

Performance: On and Off Design

Conditions

0,45

pitch=0.0

0,45

pitch=0.0

0,44

pitch=0.5

0,44

pitch=-0.5

pitch=-0.5

0,43

pitch=1.0

0,42

pitch=-1.0

0,43

pitch=1.0
pitch=-1.0

0,42

0,41

0,41

Classical Upscaled - Re=7x106 airfoils

0,40
5,00

5,50

6,00

6,50

7,00

7,50

8,00

8,50

Lambda

9,00

9,50 10,00 10,50 11,00 11,50 12,00

pitch=0.5

Design with Re=25x10 6 airfoils

0,40
5,00 5,50 6,00 6,50 7,00 7,50 8,00 8,50 9,00 9,50 10,00 10,50 11,00 11,50 12,00 12,50 13,00

Lambda

Performance in terms of AEP: Clean

and Rough Conditions
Significant improvement in
operating in rough surface
conditions.
Can we translate this into an
improvement in the rotor
design?

Clean

Clean

Clean

-1.2%

Rough

Rough

Rough

-5%

Significant improvement in operating in

rough surface conditions:

How can we translate this improvement

into a better rotor design?

Significant improvement in operating in

rough surface conditions:

How can we translate this improvement

into a better rotor design?

Use of thick airfoils at the tip

Thick airfoils at the tip: 3 design

examples
8.00
Classical Upscaled WT
7.00

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

Modified design with DU 21% A/f at the tip

0.40

Absolute Thickness [m]

6.00

Original Airfoil Distribution

Modified design with DU 21% A/f at the tip
Modified design with DU 25% A/f at the tip
Modified design with DU 30% A/f at the tip

Modified design with DU 30% A/f at the tip

4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00

0.30

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Radius [m]
16.00

0.25

Classical Upscaled WT

14.00

Design With 25mil Re Numbers

Modified design with DU 21% A/f at the tip

12.00

0.20

Modified design with DU 25% A/f at the tip

10.00

0.15
20

40

60

80

Radius [m]

100

120

140

Twist angle []

Relative Thickness [-]

0.35

Modified design with DU 25% A/f at the tip

5.00

Modified design with DU 30% A/f at the tip

8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
0

20

40

60

80

-2.00

Radius [m]

100

120

140

Clean

Clean

Clean

Clean

Clean

Thick airfoils at the tip: Results in terms

of AEP

Rough

Rough

Rough

Rough

Rough

5%

Thick airfoils at the tip: Improvement in

structural properties
Mod. Design with 21% af @ tip (from 80m to the tip)
Mod. Design with 25% af @ tip (from 63m to the tip)
Mod. Design with 30% af @ tip (from 50m to the tip)

With thick airfoils at the tip, it is possible to significantly improve the structural
properties of the rotor blade with only minor reduction in the AEP.
As a result, the total blade mass is also expected to be reduced.

Conclusions
Due to the growing sizes of the rotors, higher Reynolds numbers (up to 25
million) are introduced.
There is a lack of measurement data at high Reynolds numbers of the thick
wind turbine airfoils.
RFOIL is used in order to predict the effects of Reynolds numbers together
with some validations.
As a result of the effect of high Reynolds numbers, rotor blades get more
slender and the optimum (Cp) operating conditions are improved.
Due to the improvement in performance of the thick airfoils both in clean and
rough conditions it may be possible to use thick airfoils at the tip section of
the blade which brings significant improvements in structural properties and
the overall weight of the rotor.

Final Remarks
Reynolds number is reduced with slender blades. It is increased again with
higher tip speed operations.
Those effects can already be included in the existing or the next generation
(7-10 MW) wind turbines.
More detailed design work is necessary to be performed in order to choose
the right airfoils with right thickness. (stall, dynamic effects, stability etc.)

These results are based mainly on the numerical predictions that show a
lot of improvement possibilities. However, wind tunnel tests of thick airfoils
for high Reynolds numbers is required in order to understand the effects
and afterwards apply these in real life problems!

Special Thanks to
Herman Snel
Arne van Garrel

Questions...
ceyhan@ecn.nl