Study on a Novel Testing System for Aerodynamic Performance of Magnus Wind Turbine Blade

Abstract

The method of texting a blade’s aerodynamic performance used for traditional wind turbine airfoils was making pressure measurement holes on surface of the blade, but Magnus wind turbine blade must rotated at a certain speed to generate lift and drag force, so the method was inapplicable. A novel experimental device for testing aerodynamic performance of Magnus wind turbine’s cylindrical blades had been investigated. This device, which consists of three parts: cylindrical blade, controlling system and testing system, could measure the lift and drag force generated by the Magnus effect on the blades. This paper mainly studied the testing system,including dynamometer and amplifying circuit. At last, the testing system was used in the experiment to test aerodynamic performance of the Magnus wind turbine blade. The results showed that the system could conduct the experiment on testing the lift and drag force on the Magnus wind turbine blades efficiently, and the system could also be used to measure the lift and drag force on traditional wind turbine airfoil.