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Unique blade force measurements on an open site straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine have been performed. This paper presents a method for measuring the tangential and normal forces on a 12-kW vertical axis wind turbine prototype with a three-bladed H-rotor. Four single-axis load cells were installed in-between the hub and the support arms on one of the blades. The experimental setup, the measurement principle, together with the necessary control and measurement system are described. The maximum errors of the forces and accompanying weather data that can be obtained with the system are carefully estimated. Measured forces from the four load cells are presented, as well as the normal and tangential forces derived from them and a comparison with theoretical data. The measured torque and bending moment are also provided. The influence of the load cells on the turbine dynamics has also been evaluated. For the aerodynamic normal force, the system provides periodic data in agreement with simulations. Unexpected mechanical oscillations are present in the tangential force, introduced by the turbine dynamics. The measurement errors are of an acceptable size and often depend on the measured variable. Equations are presented for the calculation of measurement errors.

The relation between power performance and turbulence intensity for a VAWT H-rotor is studied using logged data from a 14 month (discontinuous) period with the H-rotor operating in wind speeds up to 9 m/s. The turbine, designed originally for a nominal power of 200 kW, operated during this period mostly in a restricted mode due to mechanical concerns, reaching power levels up to about 80 kW. Two different approaches are used for presenting results, one that can be compared to power curves consistent with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard and one that allows isolating the effect of turbulence from the cubic variation of power with wind speed. Accounting for this effect, the turbine still shows slightly higher efficiency at higher turbulence, proposing that the H-rotor is well suited for wind sites with turbulent winds. The operational data are also used to create a C p (λ) curve, showing slightly lower C p compared with a curve simulated by a double multiple streamtube model.

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This paper presents results for a tomographic system using an array of electrodynamic sensors. Sensitivity maps are derived for the individual sensors and then used by a back-projection algorithm to calculate concentration profiles from measured sensor values. Limitations in linearity over the sensing area are reduced by applying a filter to the images. The filtered back-projection algorithm is tested both on uniformly and on artificially produced non-uniformly distributed solids' flows.