Noise emission of a 200 kW vertical axis wind turbine

Abstract

The noise emission from a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) has been investigated. A noise measurement campaign on a 200 kW straight-bladed VAWT has been conducted, and the result has been compared to a semi-empirical model for turbulent-boundary-layer trailing edge (TBL-TE) noise. The noise emission from the wind turbine was measured, at wind speed 8 m/s, 10 m above ground, to 96.2 dBA. At this wind speed, the turbine was stalling as it was run at a tip speed lower than optimal due to constructional constraints. The noise emission at a wind speed of 6 m/s, 10 m above ground was measured while operating at optimum tip speed and was found to be 94.1 dBA. A comparison with similar size horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) indicates a noise emission at the absolute bottom of the range. Furthermore, it is clear from the analysis that the turbulent-boundary-layer trailing-edge noise, as modeled here, is much lower than the measured levels, which suggests that other mechanisms are likely to be important, such as inflow turbulence.