A large-scale, long-term experimental campaign for the investigation of wind turbine noise fluctuations and amplitude modulation phenomena.

Abstract

The understanding and prediction of wind turbine noise (WTN) remain a subject on which progress is needed to better address the concerns of residents of some wind farms and to help wind farm operators to better optimize their wind farms. A large-scale and long-term measurement campaign was conducted by partners of the PIBE project (https://www.anr-pibe.com/en) near a French wind farm during 430 days, in order to study the emission and propagation of WTN. The campaign provided 100ms sound levels and acoustic spectra, together with periodically recorded 2 min audio samples, at 5 locations ranging from 350m to 1.3km from the wind farm, in different propagation directions. Meteorological data were simultaneously collected by a 80m meteorological mast, one or two Lidars and sonic anemometers, in order to characterize vertical profiles of wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and wind turbulence. 2 distinct weeks of intensive measurements (one in summer and one in winter) completed the data by including 15 additional acoustic points at other locations. The database will mainly be used within the project for the investigation of an uncertainty model of WTN, and of WTN amplitude modulations. This communication presents the database and first results about temporal variabilities of WTN.