Trailing Edge Thickness Effect on Tonal Noise Emission Characteristics from Wind Turbine Blades

Abstract

Broadband noise generation from wind turbine blades is one of the fundamental aspects of flow-induced noise. Besides the turbulent boundary layer flow over the blades, factors such as the angle of attack, the turbulence intensity, the trailing edge thickness of the blade and their shapes strongly influence the overall sound power levels at high frequencies, i.e. f > 8 kHz. In large operating wind farms, a trade-off between noise generation and power production is considered by power utility firms to maximize the return on investment (ROI) and minimize the fatigue damage on wind turbine components. The present work deals with the analysis of the thickness effect on trailing edge bluntness noise level at hub height average wind speeds of 7 m/s, 10 m/s. A semi-empirical BPM model was used to predict the sound pressure levels from the 37 m blade length of a 2MW wind turbine. The receiver configuration was fixed at a distance of 120 m from the source height of 80 m. The results demonstrated that as the trailing edge height increased from 0.1 % to 0.5 % of the local chord, the sound power level increased by ~ 17 dB for frequencies > 200 Hz, but decreased by 16 dB when the thickness is 0.1 % local chord. The computed results of the sound power level using the BPM model have been validated using experimental data and showed a good agreement for the tonal frequencies, f ~ 10 kHz, where the trailing edge bluntness noise becomes dominant.