As the demand for renewable energy increases, wind turbine rotors will become larger with slender blades. Vortex Generators (VGs) are used for passive flow control to avoid flow separation and reduce unsteady loading on the thick root section of slender blades due to their simplicity, inexpensiveness, and the ability to retrofit them to blades. Aerodynamic load calculations for VGs involve long experimental campaigns or resource intensive CFD calculations. Due to their inherent time-intensive nature aeroelastic optimisation and design tools prefer to use simplified but accurate analysis tools for aerodynamic load calculations of clean airfoils. One such class of tools are viscous-inviscid interaction solvers that use Integral Boundary Layer (IBL) methods for viscous calculations in the boundary layer coupled with an inviscid solver for the rest of the domain. The most popular example of this tool is XFOIL. An engineering model for VGs in IBL methods has previously been developed and implemented in XFOIL. In this research, the model parameters are tuned for implementation in another tool RFOIL based on XFOIL. RFOIL has been developed for accurate and robust analysis of wind turbine airfoils with improvements for thick airfoils and rotational corrections. The aerodynamic performance predicted the VG model in both XFOIL and RFOIL is then validated with an extensive database of airfoil data consisting of airfoils between 21% to 60% thickness, as well as Reynolds numbers between 1 million to 14 million, equipped with and without VGs. Finally, the computation time for the VG model is compared with that for a clean airfoil analysis in the same viscous-inviscid interaction solvers RFOIL and XFOIL. The investigation provides an overview of the usability of the engineering model in airfoil design methodologies in the wind turbine industry.

This paper presents a computational investigation on the effects of Gurney flaps on the aerodynamic performance of a horizontal axis wind turbine, which is part of the EU FP7 AVATAR project. The research investigates two configurations of Gurney flaps applied at the inboard part of the blade (r/R=0.30∼0.46) at 85% chord location on the pressure surface. The computational method applied in the investigation solves the Reynold-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with multiple reference frame (MRF) approach, which models the rotating turbulent flow over the wind turbine rotor. Numerical simulations are performed for the wind turbine rotor with and without Gurney flap at the tip speed ratios λ=4.59 and 6.35. Comparison of the numerical results with experimental measurements shows that the deployment of Gurney flaps effectively increases the power coefficients of the rotor by 21% at λ=6.35. Gurney flaps have a considerable 3D effect on spanwise thrust and torque coefficients distribution. The performance of two Gurney flaps configurations is compared. It is shown that the larger Gurney flap reduces the effect on the power generated due to protruding out of the local boundary layer of the flow. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results in terms of total thrust and power within 14.1% difference, and complement the experimental database.

Two new engineering models are presented for the aerodynamic induction of a wind turbine under dynamic thrust. The models are developed using the differential form of Duhamel integrals of indicial responses of actuator disc type vortex models. The time constants of the indicial functions are obtained by the indicial responses of a linear and a nonlinear actuator disc model. The new dynamic-inflow engineering models are verified against the results of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model and compared against the dynamic-inflow engineering models of Pitt-Peters, Øye, and Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), for several load cases. Comparisons of all models show that two time constants are necessary to predict the dynamic induction. The amplitude and phase delay of the velocity distribution shows a strong radial dependency. Verifying the models against results from the CFD model shows that the model based on the linear actuator disc vortex model predicts a similar performance as the Øye model. The model based on the nonlinear actuator disc vortex model predicts the dynamic induction better than the other models concerning both phase delay and amplitude, especially at high load.

Spectral analysis was performed on the time series data computed from pressure measurements on the New MEXICO (Model Rotor Experiments under Controlled Conditions) rotor in standstill conditions. As a priori, 3D airfoil polars were recreated from standstill measurements and compared against 2D airfoil polars and flat plate theory results to verify the measurements. The spectral analysis revealed the presence of dominant shedding frequencies for certain ranges of the geometric angle of attack. Two dominant shedding modes were identified: One was associated with bluff body vortex shedding, and the other was associated with low Strouhal number shedding. No dominant shedding frequencies were observed for angles of attack beyond 50°. The research improves on our current understanding of the unsteady nature of the stall regime, along with providing insight into the existence of vortex-induced vibrations on a wind turbine in standstill conditions.

This paper presents final results from the EU project AVATAR in which aerodynamic models are improved and validated for wind turbines on a scale of 10 MW and more. Special attention is paid to the improvement of low fidelity engineering (BEM based) models with higher fidelity (CFD) models but also with intermediate fidelity free vortex wake (FVW) models. The latter methods were found to be a good basis for improvement of induction modelling in engineering methods amongst others for the prediction of yawed cases, which in AVATAR was found to be one of the most challenging subjects to model. FVW methods also helped to improve the prediction of tip losses. Aero-elastic calculations with BEM based and FVW based models showed that fatigue loads for normal production cases were over predicted with approximately 15% or even more. It should then be realised that the outcome of BEM based models does not only depend on the choice of engineering add-ons (as is often assumed) but it is also heavily dependent on the way the induced velocities are solved. To this end an annulus and element approach are discussed which are assessed with the aid of FVW methods. For the prediction of fatigue loads the so-called element approach is recommended but the derived yaw models rely on an annulus approach which pleads for a generalised solution method for the induced velocities.

As part of the AVATAR and Mexnext projects, this study compares several methods used to derive lifting line variables from CFD simulations of the MEXICO rotor in yawed inflow. The results from six partners within the AVATAR/Mexnext consortium using five different methods of extraction were compared. Overall comparison of the induced velocities at the mid and tip parts of blade shows fairly good agreement between the tested methods, where the derived angle of attack differs within 1°, within the linear range this accounts to 10% uncertainty on the aerodynamic forces. The presented comparison shows inadequate agreement between the methods for application towards the root.