Blade surface pressure measurements in the field and their usage for
aerodynamic model validation
Abstract
This study presents results from a long-term measurement campaign on a
research wind turbine in the field. Pressure measurements are conducted
at 25% blade radius over several months. Together with inflow
measurements provided by a LiDAR system, they form an extensive dataset
which is used in the validation of numerical aerodynamic models. The
model validation is conducted based on both ten-minute average data as
well as time-resolved unsteady data. Initially, it is investigated how
representative ten-minute average pressure measurements are of the
underlying unsteady aerodynamics. Binned ten-minute average pressure
distributions are then analysed together with their numerical
counterpart, consisting of a combination of rotor and airfoil level
aerodynamic/aeroelastic simulation results using average environmental
and operating conditions as input. Finally, time-resolved measurements
and simulation results are compared, validating the aeroelastic tools’
capability to reproduce unsteady aerodynamics. Overall, reasonable
agreement is found between numerical simulations and field experiment
data showcasing two aspects: Low-fidelity numerical tools remain
relevant for simulating modern multi-megawatt wind turbines and
long-term pressure measurements provide invaluable means for validating
such tools.