Wake Effect of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine on the Performance of a Downstream Turbine

Haojun Tang, Kit-Ming Lam, Kei-Man Shum and Yongle Li
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Haojun Tang: Department of Bridge Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Kit-Ming Lam: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Kei-Man Shum: CLP Power Wind/Wave Tunnel Facility, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Yongle Li: Department of Bridge Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-18

Abstract: This paper presents wind tunnel tests on the wake characteristics of a three-blade horizontal axis wind turbine and the wake effect on the performance of a downstream turbine. For a single turbine model, the performance was determined and this was followed by measurement of the wind characteristics including velocities, turbulence intensities, and correlation in the wake flow field. Subsequently, taking two horizontal axis wind turbines in a tandem arrangement into account, their performance was tested and the aerodynamic mechanism was discussed. The results showed that the upstream turbine with blades set at a small pitch angle provided smaller disturbance to the flow, but as the blade turned faster, larger changes in the velocity and the turbulence intensity occurred in its wake due to the more frequent disturbance of the wind turbine. The correlation of wake velocities in the turbine swept area also obviously decreased from the free-stream situation. For the downstream turbine, the output power loss largely depended on the wake characteristics of the upstream turbine, which was closely related to lower wind velocities or higher turbulence intensities. The decrease in correlation of the streamwise velocity within the blade swept area is accompanied by the increased correlation of the tangential velocity, which may be beneficial to the downstream turbine’s performance.

Keywords: wind turbines; wind tunnel test; turbine wake; tandem arrangement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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