Full scale experimental analysis of extreme coherent gust with wind direction changes (EOD)

Abstract

A coherent wind speed and wind direction change (ECD) load case is defined in the wind turbine standard. This load case is an essential extreme load case that e.g. may be design driving for flap defection of active stall controlled wind turbines. The present analysis identifies statistically the magnitudes of a joint gust event defined by a simultaneously wind speed- and direction change in order to obtain an indication of the validity of the magnitudes specified in the IEC code. The analysis relates to pre-specified recurrence periods and is based on full-scale wind field measurements. The wind speed gust amplitude, occurring simultaneously with a wind direction change, corresponds well to the recommended ECD value of 15 m/s, except for the complex terrain case, where estimated extreme wind speed gust amplitudes are seen to exceed the IEC value with approximately 50%. The estimated extreme wind direction gust amplitudes associated with the investigated European sites are low compared to the recommended IEC- values. However, these values, as function of the mean wind speed, are difficult to validate thoroughly due to the limited number of fully correlated measurements. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.