Unsteady Surface Pressure Measurement System Suitable for Making Measurements on Wind Turbine Blades in the Field

Increased productivity of wind turbines and wind plants requires a better understanding of the unsteady blade aerodynamics.This understanding could lead to improved energy capture and reduced blade loading and to a better understanding of wake development and propagation that promises to increase the overall production of a wind plant. Unsteady pressure measurements on the surface of the blades of an industrial-scale wind turbine operating in the field would greatly aid in this process. Due to the harsh environments in which wind turbines operate as well as the difficulties inherent in servicing and accessing the blades, a limited number of pressure measurements on full scale turbines have been conducted. Whereas the prior efforts developed pressure measurement systems as part of a larger campaign, this effort specifically focuses on the challenges of unsteady pressure measurements on a wind turbine blade. It is anticipated that a measurement system specifically tailored to the field environment that addresses its inherent challenges can be designed and manufactured thus allowing easier implementation. In the work proposed here, we aim to design and manufacture a pressure measurement system capable of being installed on a wind turbine. In Phase I, a system will be demonstrated in the laboratory that will allow unsteady pressure measurements and will provide the ancillary systems that increase measurement accuracy for extended time periods. There will be a focus on a robust, self-contained system that is capable of long-term operations on a wind turbine blade in a field environment. A user-friendly graphical interface, communication systems, and software for post-processing the raw pressure measurement data will also be developed. Phase 2 would focus on deploying this system on an operational wind turbine to demonstrate its capabilities and to identify any issues that remain to be addressed. Development of a robust pressure measurement system that can be successfully operated in the harsh wind turbine environment would translate to other environmentally and operationally difficult applications. In particular, applications such as environmental wind tunnel testing, helicopter research, flight testing and gas turbine research could utilize such a system to advance the quality of experimental measurements in their respective fields. In addition, improvement in the models used to design wind turbines and wind plants would be possible using the data generated by the proposed system to validate the models thereby leading to improved predictive capability.