Numerical analysis of the effect of flaps on the tip vortex of a wind turbine blade

Abstract

Two oscillating flaps located close to the tip and at mid span are used to excite the unstable modes of the tip vortex system of a wind turbine blade. The two flaps are deflected in opposite directions such that the root bending moment of the wind turbine blade remains almost unchanged. To investigate the mechanism of how and to what extent the deflection of the flaps influences the tip-vortex system, Large-Eddy Simulations in the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation in a rotating frame of reference are performed at an averaged chord based Reynolds number of 300,000. Periodic boundary conditions are applied in the circumferential direction such that the flow over only one of the three blades of the wind turbine needs to be computed. A subsequent simulation of the trailing tip-vortex system is performed to analyze the evolution of the disturbed tip vortex. These simulations use a far-wake model based on the parameters obtained from the wind turbine simulation as inflow condition for the wake flow field. The comparison of the flow without and with oscillating flaps shows that the tip-vortex core is displaced by approximately 5% of the rotor radius by the flap motion. The root bending moment and torque at the root of the blade with flaps vary sinusoidally. Due to the compensation by the middle span flap, the difference of the root bending moment and torque is found to be less than 5% compared to the case without moving flaps. The simulations of trailing tip vortex show considerably earlier breakdown of the excited system, which proves the concept to excite instabilities in the vortex system by oscillating flaps successful.