Shrouded wind turbine performance in yawed turbulent flow conditions

Abstract

Wind turbines represent a growing energy source worldwide. In many cases, operating in turbulent and changing wind direction spots. In this work, we use a wind tunnel to analyse the effect of the turbulence in a wind turbine provided with a Wind Lens flow concentrator, under yaw conditions, for turbulence intensity values of 10% and 15%. Measurements are made of the power coefficient as a function of the Tip Speed Ratio using two types of Wind Lens, CiiB5 and CiiB10, at yaw angles from 0 to 30 . In general, for the turbine with Wind Lens, an increase of the yaw angle causes a reduction of the power coefficient. If the turbine operates with the CiiB10, the stronger the turbulence, the greater performance is obtained. In conclusion, for the case of turbulent flow and yaw = 20 or less, the Wind Lens turbine offers better performance than without the flow concentrator.