Researchers from the University of Patras in Greece have developed and tested a new gust generator for low-speed wind tunnels, aiming to improve our understanding of how sudden wind changes, or gusts, affect various aerodynamic systems. This research, led by Marinos Manolesos, Dimitris Gkiolas, Konstantinos Rekoumis, and George Papadakis, focuses on enhancing load prediction, aeroelastic analysis, and control strategies for aircraft, uninhabited aerial vehicles, and wind turbines, particularly in conditions where airflow becomes complex and nonlinear.
The team designed and built a gust generator based on oscillating vanes, which can create specific gust profiles relevant to the aforementioned applications. To validate their design, they conducted experiments using hot-wire anemometry to measure the generated gust field under various conditions, such as different wind speeds, gust amplitudes, and frequencies. Concurrently, they performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to support their measurements and analyze the flow physics involved in gust formation and propagation.
One of the key findings of this study is the identification of negative velocity peaks in the classical ‘1-cos’ gust profiles. To address this issue, the researchers proposed a modified vane motion protocol that significantly reduces the negative peak factor while maintaining a substantial gust ratio. This improvement can lead to more accurate and reliable testing of aerodynamic systems in wind tunnels.
The numerical results also revealed that secondary flow-angle variations arise from nonlinear interactions between vortices shed by adjacent vanes. This insight can help engineers better understand and predict the behavior of aerodynamic systems in real-world conditions, where gusts and other unsteady airflow phenomena are common.
The research was published in the journal Experiments in Fluids, and it offers valuable insights for the energy sector, particularly for wind turbine design and optimization. By improving our understanding of gust-induced unsteady aerodynamics, this work can contribute to the development of more efficient and reliable wind turbines, ultimately enhancing the performance and cost-effectiveness of wind energy systems.
In summary, the researchers from the University of Patras have developed a novel gust generator for low-speed wind tunnels, which can help improve the design and testing of aerodynamic systems, including wind turbines. Their findings can have practical applications in the energy sector, particularly in the development of more efficient and reliable wind energy systems.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.