This paper describes a method of creating inhomogeneous inflow conditions to a horizontal axis wind turbine installed in the settling chamber of the large wind tunnel of the TU Berlin. Thereby, a steady gust (i.e. spatial velocity gradient, constant over time) is created which covers half of the swept area of the turbine. For purposes of analysis, a hotwire traversing system was used and measurements were correlated to on-blade angle of attack, velocity and blade root bending moment measurements. Moreover, the paper presents wake measurements at one downstream plane behind the turbine.

This paper presents the results of an advanced control strategy that employs active trailing edge flaps to reduce the fatigue loads of an experimental wind turbine. The strategy, called repetitive model predictive control, is a multiple-input multipleoutput controller that aims at the alleviation of out-of-plane blade root bending moments. The strategy incorporates the control commands, output errors, and state deviation from the previous rotation. This way, the time lag in the strain sensor input due to the blade inertia is compensated. Additionally, a strategy to limit the computational costs is presented. The load alleviation performance is evaluated at different yaw cases and compared with different individual flap control strategies. The repetitive model predictive control is able to reduce the fatigue loads by up to 23% compared with the better performing individual flap control strategy. This improvement in load reduction is accompanied by an increase in flap travel of up to 7% compared with the individual flap control strategies. K E Y W O R D S fatigue load control, individual flap control, repetitive control, trailing edge flaps | INTRODUCTIONWind energy has become one of the most important sources of renewable energy. In order for this trend to continue, the cost of energy of this technology needs to be as low as possible. A crucial factor for the cost of energy is the employed material for building a turbine. Lowering material input can be achieved by reducing the loads acting on the turbine components. These in turn can be decreased by a load control strategy specifically designed for this purpose. As an example, cyclic and individual pitch control has been studied by various institutes. [1][2][3][4] Substantial research was also carried out into smart rotor control which could supplement pitching of the rotor blades. In particular, employing locally distributed active flow control devices on the blades has drawn a lot of attention in the community. Due to their high bandwidth and control authority, trailing edge flaps are one of the most promising active flow control options. 5 In particular, it was shown that trailing edge flaps achieve the same load reduction for fatigue loads as individual pitch control. 3 A critical aspect of active load control is the choice of sensors for the control strategy. 6 Mostly, active flow control aims at the alleviation of the out-of-plane turbine loads. Therefore, employing a feedback control on the out-of-plane blade root bending moment is a common choice.

Abstract. In the present paper, numerical and experimental investigations of a model wind turbine with a diameter of 3.0 m are described. The study has three objectives. The first one is the provision of validation data. The second one is to estimate the influence of the wind tunnel walls by comparing measurements to simulated results with and without wind tunnel walls. The last objective is the comparison and evaluation of methods of high fidelity, namely computational fluid dynamics, and medium fidelity, namely lifting-line free vortex wake. The experiments were carried out in the large wind tunnel of the TU Berlin where a blockage ratio of 40 % occurs. With the lifting-line free vortex wake code QBlade, the turbine was simulated under far field conditions at the TU Berlin. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations of the wind turbine, including wind tunnel walls and under far field conditions, were performed at the University of Stuttgart with the computational fluid dynamics code FLOWer. Comparisons among the experiment, the lifting-line free vortex wake code and the computational fluid dynamics code include on-blade velocity and angle of attack. Comparisons of flow fields are drawn between the experiment and the computational fluid dynamics code. Bending moments are compared among the simulations. A good accordance was achieved for the on-blade velocity and the angle of attack, whereas deviations occur for the flow fields and the bending moments.

Abstract. This experimental load control study presents results of an active trailing edge flap feedforward controller for wind turbine applications. The controller input is derived from pressure based lift estimation methods that rely either on a quasi-steady method, based on a three-hole probe, or on an unsteady method that is based on three selected surface pressure ports. Furthermore, a standard feedback controller, based on force balance measurements, is compared to the feedforward control. A Clark-Y airfoil is employed for the wing that is equipped with a trailing edge flap of x/c = 30 % chordwise extension. Inflow disturbances are created by a two-dimensional active grid. The Reynolds number is Re = 290,000 and reduced frequencies of k = 0.07 up to k = 0.32 are analyzed. Within the first part of the paper, the lift estimation methods are compared. The surface pressure based method shows generally more accurate results whereas the three-hole probe estimate overpredicts the lift amplitudes with increasing frequencies. Nonetheless, employing the latter as input to the feedforward controller is more promising as a beneficial phase lead is introduced by this method. A successful load alleviation was achieved up to reduced frequencies of k = 0.192.

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Abstract. Numerical and experimental investigations of a model wind turbine with a diameter of 3.0m are described in the present paper. The objectives of the study are the provision of validation data, the comparison and evaluation of methods of different fidelity and the assessment of the influence of the wind tunnel walls by comparison of measurements to simulations with and without wind tunnel walls. The experiments were carried out in the large wind tunnel of the TU Berlin. With the Lifting Line Free Vortex Wake (LLFVW) code QBlade, the turbine was simulated under far field conditions at the TU Berlin. 5URANS simulations were performed at the University of Stuttgart with the CFD code FLOWer for far field condition to draw a comparison to QBlade. Moreover, CFD simulations of the turbine in a wind tunnel were carried out, as the walls have a significant influence on the turbine performance.Comparisons between experiment, the LLFVW code and CFD include on-blade velocities, angle of attack and bending moments. Comparisons of flow fields are drawn between experiment and the CFD code. 10A good accordance was achieved for the flow fields, the on-blade velocity and the angle of attack, whereas deviations occur for the bending moments.

Abstract. This paper investigates the aerodynamic impact of Gurney flaps on a research wind turbine of the Hermann-Föttinger Institute at the Technische Universität Berlin. The rotor radius is 1.5 m, and the blade configurations consist of the clean and the tripped baseline cases, emulating the effects of forced leading-edge transition. The wind tunnel experiments include three operation points based on tip speed ratios of 3.0, 4.3, and 5.6, reaching Reynolds numbers of approximately 2.5×105. The measurements are taken by means of three different methods: ultrasonic anemometry in the wake, surface pressure taps in the midspan blade region, and strain gauges at the blade root. The retrofit applications consist of two Gurney flap heights of 0.5 % and 1.0 % in relation to the chord length, which are implemented perpendicular to the pressure side at the trailing edge. As a result, the Gurney flap configurations lead to performance improvements in terms of the axial wake velocities, the angles of attack and the lift coefficients. The enhancement of the root bending moments implies an increase in both the rotor torque and the thrust. Furthermore, the aerodynamic impact appears to be more pronounced in the tripped case compared to the clean case. Gurney flaps are considered a passive flow-control device worth investigating for the use on horizontal-axis wind turbines.

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