Open Access

ARTICLE

Analysis of Near-Wake Deflection Characteristics of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Tower under Yaw State

Zhen Liu^1,3, Jianwen Wang^1,2,*, Fuzhong Bai³, Caifeng Wen^1,2, Yunchao Du¹

1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, 010051, China
2 Key Laboratory of Wind Energy and Solar Energy Utilization Technology, Ministry of Education, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, 010051, China
3 School of Mechanical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, 010051, China

* Corresponding Author: Jianwen Wang. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Wind Energy Development and Utilization)

Energy Engineering 2021, 118(6), 1627-1640. https://doi.org/10.32604/EE.2021.016357

Received 01 March 2021; Accepted 15 July 2021; Issue published 10 September 2021

Abstract

The yaw of the horizontal axis wind turbine results in the deflection of the wake flow field of the tower. The reasonable layout of wind farm can reduce the power loss of the downstream wind turbine generators due to the blocking effect of the upstream wake flow and increase the output power of the whole wind farm. However, there is still much space for further research. In this paper, experimental research is conducted on the near-wake deflection characteristics of wind turbine tower under yaw state, expecting the effect of throwing away a brick in order to get a gem. In the low-turbulence wind tunnel test, regarding the most unfavorable position where the rotating blades coincide with the tower, Particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology is used to test the instantaneous velocity field and output power and analyze experimental data at four different yaw angles, different inflow velocities and heights. Meanwhile, in order to quantitatively analyze the laws on wake deflection, the radon transformation is used to analyze the velocity contour for calculating the wake direction angle, and the results show high reliability. The comprehensive experimental results indicate that the near-wake flow field of the tower obviously deflects towards a side in the horizontal plane. With the increase of the yaw angle, the deflection angle of the wake flow field further increases, and the recovery of wake velocity accelerates. The closer to the blade root, the more complex the flow is, and the influence of the blade on the near wake of the tower is gradually weakened. The change laws on the wake direction angle with the yaw angle and the blade spanwise direction are obtained. The experiment in this paper can provide guidance for layout optimization of wind farm, and the obtained data can provide a scientific basis for the research on performance prediction of horizontal axis wind turbine.

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Keywords

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