Effect of tip speed ratio on coherent dynamics in the near wake of a model wind turbine

Abstract

The near wake of a small-scale wind turbine is investigated using particle image velocimetry experiments at different tip speed ratios (λ). The wind turbine model had a nacelle and a tower mimicking real-scale wind turbines. The near wake is found to be dominated by multiple coherent structures, including the tip vortices, distinct vortex sheddings from the nacelle and tower, and wake meandering. The merging of the tip vortices is found to be strongly dependent on λ. A convective length scale (Lc) related to the pitch of the tip vortices is defined that is shown to be a better length scale than turbine diameter (D) to demarcate the near wake from the far wake. The tower induced strong vertical asymmetry in the flow by destabilising the tip vortices and promoting mixing in the lower (below the nacelle) plane. The nacelle’s shedding is found to be important in ‘seeding’ wake meandering, which, although not potent, exists close to the nacelle, and it becomes important only after a certain distance downstream (x > 3Lc). A link between the ‘effective porosity’ of the turbine and λ is established, and the strength and frequency of wake meandering are found to be dependent on λ. In fact, a decreasing trend of wake meandering frequency with λ is observed, similar to vortex shedding from a porous plate at varying porosity. Such similarity upholds the notion of wake meandering being a global instability of the turbine, which can be considered as a ‘porous’ bluff body of diameter D.