Simulation of winds as seen by a rotating vertical axis wind turbine blade

Abstract

The objective of this report is to provide turbulent wind analyses relevant to the design and testing of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT). A technique was developed for utilizing high-speed turbulence wind data from a line of seven anemometers at a single level to simulate the wind seen by a rotating VAWT blade. Twelve data cases, representing a range of wind speeds and stability classes, were selected from the large volume of data available from the Clayton, New Mexico, Vertical Plane Array (VPA) project. Simulations were run of the rotationally sampled wind speed relative to the earth, as well as the tangential and radial wind speeds, which are relative to the rotating wind turbine blade. Spectral analysis is used to compare and assess wind simulations from the different wind regimes, as well as from alternate wind measurement techniques. The variance in the wind speed at frequencies at or above the blade rotation rate is computed for all cases, and is used to quantitatively compare the VAWT simulations with Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) simulations. Qualitative comparisons are also made with direct wind measurements from a VAWT blade.