Experimental investigation of wind turbine stress and power characteristics under dynamic changes in wind direction

ABSTRACT

The dynamic inlet conditions of variable wind direction had an obvious influence on the response of wind turbine stress and power, and accurately analyzing their changing characteristics is of great significance to enhancing wind turbines’ stability and efficient operation. Experiments were performed in a wind tunnel, where the wind turbine was mounted on a rotating platform to simulate dynamic changes in wind direction at prescribed speeds and angles. The wind turbine’s stress and power were measured. Results show that the stress was minimally reduced by 4.4% (tower) and 1.7% (blade) when the wind direction change angle was small. Maximum stress reduction of 92% (tower) and 93% (blade) with increasing wind direction change angle. As the wind direction change speed increased, the magnitude of the drop in blade stress decreased by 6% ~32%. The decrease in power coefficient and rotational speed at small wind direction change angles and large wind direction change speeds were not significant, and the fluctuations were more obvious. The coupling of aerodynamic deterioration and inertial effects during dynamic changes in wind direction was one of the main reasons for the variations in the wind turbine power and stress response.

KEYWORDS:

• Wind direction dynamic change
• wind turbine
• blade
• tower
• stress
• power

Disclosure statement

The author(s) declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Credit authorship contribution statement

Sijia Yan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Writing‒original draft, Writing‒review & editing. Jianwen Wang: Conceptualization, Writing‒review & editing. Jianwei Zhang: Validation, Investigation. Zhiying Gao: Project administration, Investigation. Yefei Bai: Project administration, Supervision.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 51766014], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 52066014]. We would like to thank Editage [http://www.editage.cn] for English language editing.

Notes on contributors

Sijia Yan

Sijia Yan, born in 1992, is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China. He received his master’s degree from Kunming University of Science and Technology in 2019. His main research interests include aerodynamic performance and structural dynamic response of wind turbines.

Jianwen Wang

Jianwen Wang, born in 1958, is currently a professor and PhD supervisor at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China. He received his PhD degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2008. His main research interests include the development and utilization of wind energy.

Jianwei Zhang

Jianwei Zhang, born in 1991, is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China. He received his master’s degree from Xinjiang Agricultural University in 2018. His main research interests include the structural characteristics of wind turbines.

Zhiying Gao

Zhiying Gao, born in 1976, is a professor and PhD supervisor at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China. He received her PhD degree from Inner Mongolia University of Technology in 2010. His main research interests include dynamic characteristics and aeroacoustics of wind turbines.

Yefei Bai

Yefei Bai, born in 1979, is a professor at Inner Mongolia University of Technology, China. He received his PhD degree from Inner Mongolia University of Technology in 2017. His main research interests include wind energy utilization technology.