Investigation of wind turbine unsteady aerodynamics and trailing-edge noise characteristics under wake steering

Abstract

In wake steering strategy, the shaft of an upstream wind turbine is yawed to deflect the wake and decrease the wake-swept area of the downstream wind turbine rotor. This intentional yaw misalignment increases the output power of the downstream wind turbine at the expense of some loss of upstream wind turbine power, consequently increasing the total wind farm power. However, the asymmetric non-uniform inflow into the downstream wind turbine due to the deflected wake causes unsteady aerodynamic loads and affects the wind turbine noise characteristics. In this study, the unsteady vortex lattice method coupled with the curled wake model is used to predict the unsteady aerodynamics of a downstream wind turbine in wake steering. Based on the unsteady aerodynamic results, the trailing-edge noise characteristics are predicted by a semi-empirical method. The impact of wake steering on trailing-edge noise level and amplitude modulation is evaluated. The results show that the asymmetric non-uniform inflow due to wake steering increases the amplitude modulation of the downstream wind turbine.