Wind Gust Measurement Techniques—From Traditional Anemometry to New Possibilities

Abstract

Information on wind gusts is needed for assessment of wind-induced damage and risks to safety. The measurement of wind gust speed requires a high temporal resolution of the anemometer system, because the gust is defined as a short-duration (seconds) maximum of the fluctuating wind speed. Until the digitalization of wind measurements in the 1990s, the wind gust measurements suffered from limited recording and data processing resources. Therefore, the majority of continuous wind gust records date back at most only by 30 years. Although the response characteristics of anemometer systems are good enough today, the traditional measurement techniques at weather stations based on cup and sonic anemometers are limited to heights and regions where the supporting structures can reach. Therefore, existing measurements are mainly concentrated over densely-populated land areas, whereas from remote locations, such as the marine Arctic, wind gust information is available only from sparse coastal locations. Recent developments of wind gust measurement techniques based on turbulence measurements from research aircraft and from Doppler lidar can potentially provide new information from heights and locations unreachable by traditional measurement techniques. Moreover, fast-developing measurement methods based on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) may add to better coverage of wind gust measurements in the future. In this paper, we provide an overview of the history and the current status of anemometry from the perspective of wind gusts. Furthermore, a discussion on the potential future directions of wind gust measurement techniques is provided.

Characterizing wind gusts in complex terrain

“…Regions with complex topography and land cover heterogeneity also tend to experience more frequent and stronger wind gusts (herein defined as coherent shortterm wind speed maxima) (Letson et al, 2018;Earl et al, 2017;Sheridan, 2011;Hasager et al, 2003) due in part to F. Letson et al: Characterizing wind gusts Wind gusts represent an important source of structural engineering loads for tall buildings, towers, bridges, and wind turbines (Solari, 1987;IEC, 2005;Cheynet et al, 2016), and are known to be of larger magnitude in complex terrain due in part to the factors listed above (Tieleman, 1992;Verheij et al, 1992). A number of numerical wind flow models have been developed for application at high spatial resolution over complex terrain, but model evaluation has been severely constrained by the lack of suitable observational data (Butler et al, 2015;Bechmann et al, 2011;Berg et al, 2011;Suomi and Vihma, 2018). Further, most past research on flow intermittency has focused on the intensity (i.e., magnitude) of wind gusts and has employed measurements from 10 m a.g.l.…”

“…The resulting parametric descriptions of gust properties are potentially of utility to the engineering community because they permit estimation of extreme values (IEC, 2005; ASCE, 1998) (e.g., using Rice theory; Gomes and Vickery, 1977), facilitate development of joint distributions of gust parameters, allow characterization of gusts that contribute to structural fatigue, and are used with design standards (for example, extreme gusts are modeled in wind turbine design standards based on mean wind speeds and turbulence intensity; IEC, 2005). They are potentially also of use within the meteorological community since they could afford a methodology for downscaling of wind gusts in either weather forecasting (Friederichs and Thorarinsdottir, 2012;Suomi and Vihma, 2018) or climate downscaling contexts (Cheng et al, 2014). Further, fluctuating wind loads on engineering structures requires estimates of multiple components of the flow, including characteristics that have previously received relatively little attention (e.g., the shape of wind gusts) (Mücke et al, 2011;Suomi et al, 2013).…”

“…Data collected during the Perdigão experiment and analyses presented herein provide a foundation for improved wind gust characterization in complex terrain. These data also provide an unprecedented opportunity for detailed validation and verification of numerical wind flow models (Butler et al, 2015;Suomi and Vihma, 2018).…”

Automated wind turbine maintenance scheduling

“…Furthermore, current regulations and maintenance guides include dynamic safety limits taking into account not only the mean 10-minute wind speed value but also the gust value, when a crane usage is required for such a case like major component replacement. The definition of gust is a short-duration (seconds) maximum of the fluctuating wind speed [26].…”

Influence of Ultrasonic Wind Sensor Position on Measurement Accuracy under Full-Scale Conditions

“…To carry out such measurements, commercially available devices are used, or an adequate measuring system is built on the basis of these. An up-to-date, comprehensive literature review of cup, sonic, and pressure anemometers, lidar research aircrafts, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) techniques for measuring wind gusts in environmental engineering was presented in [ 1 ]. Various kinds of anemometers, differential pressure sensors, lidar, etc.…”