Wind Tunnel Test on the Effect of Solidity on Near Wake Instability of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

Owing to the rapid development of the offshore wind power technology and increasing capacity of wind turbines, vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have experienced a great development. Nevertheless, the VAWT wake effect, which affects the power generation efficiency and rotor fatigue life, has not been thoroughly understood. In this study, the mid-span wake measurements on a VAWT in six different configurations were conducted. This study aimed to investigate the effect of solidity on near wake instability of vertical-axis wind turbine. By using the wavelet analysis method to analyse the measured velocity (or pressure) time series signals on a multi-scale and with multi-resolution, the dynamic characteristics of the coherent vortex structures in the wake evolution process were determined. The results show that with increasing solidity, the VAWT wake develops into a bluff body wake mode. In addition, a characteristic frequency that is lower than the low-frequency large-scale vortex shedding frequency occur. The wavelet transform was used to decompose and reconstruct the measured data, and the relationship between the low-frequency large-scale vortex shedding and lower frequency pulsation was established. The results provide important data for numerical modelling and new insights into the physical mechanism of the VAWT wake evolution into a bluff body wake.