This study presents an experimental investigation on the effects of winglets on the near wake flow around the tip region and on the tip vortex characteristics downstream of a 0.94 m diameter three-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) rotor. Phase-locked 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are performed with and without winglets covering 120 deg of azimuthal progression of the rotor. The impact of using winglets on the flow field near the wake boundary as well as on the tip vortex characteristics such as the vortex convection, vortex core size, and core expansion as well as the resultant induced drag on the rotor are investigated. Results show that winglets initially generate an asymmetric co-rotating vortex pair, which eventually merge together after about ten tip chords downstream to create a single but nonuniform vortex structure. Mutual induction of the initial double vortex structure causes a faster downstream convection and a radially outward motion of tip vortices compared to the baseline case. The wake boundary is shifted radially outward, velocity gradients are diffused, and vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy levels are significantly reduced across the wake boundary. The tip vortex core sizes are three times as big compared to those of the baseline case, and within the vortex core, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy levels are reduced more than 50%. Results show consistency with various vortex core and expansion models albeit with adjusted model coefficients for the winglet case. The estimated induced drag reduction is about 15% when winglets are implemented.

The focus of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of winglets on the performance of two interacting similar horizontal axis model wind turbines. For this purpose, a downwind winglet is designed and manufactured to be attached to the blade tips of the upstream turbine. A set of wing extensions with the same length as the winglets is also produced to be compared to the winglets. Power and thrust coefficients of both turbines are measured with winglets as well as with wing extensions attached to the blade tips of the upstream turbine and are compared to the baseline case (rectangular tip without any tip devices). The model turbines are three bladed and have a rotor diameter of 0.94 m. The measurements are performed in two different wind tunnels (closed test section and open jet). For both sets of measurements, winglets have a noticeable increasing effect on the power coefficient of the individual turbine. There is an increase in the thrust coefficient as well. Measurements on the second turbine are done while it is positioned at downstream locations in line with the upstream turbine. Results show that it produces less power while operating in the wake of the upstream turbine with winglets. However, the overall power efficiency of two turbines can increase for the wingletted case. Moreover, results with wing extensions show that although upstream turbine produces more power with wing extensions attached, the power coefficient remains the same as the baseline case due to growth in rotor swept area and hence, it is less than the power coefficient of wingletted turbine.

This study focuses on finding the optimum hub height (i.e., tower height) distributions for two interacting on-shore wind farms that are located on relatively complex terrain. Different optimization scenarios are studied, which take into account both the wind farm power output and the relevant cost variations due to changing hub heights. Simulations are performed using the Flow Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) framework, which is modified to represent significant variations in hub height levels due to elevation differences, hence partial wake interactions that are occurring as a consequence, are more realistically represented. Optimization is based on a systematic procedure that includes introducing definitions of overall evaluation criterion parameters for objective setting and generation of design of experiments tables and related data via FLORIS simulations to properly cover the design space. A Pareto analysis of generated data to find the most influential parameters is then performed, and response surfaces are generated to represent these variations, which are, in turn, used for Monte Carlo based simulations to determine the optimized hub height distributions. Overall, the optimized results show a reasonable increase can be achieved in wind farm power output levels, while total tower height levels (hence related cost levels) are either not changing or in some cases even getting reduced for the wind farms in consideration.

This study presents the results of an experimental investigation focusing on the effects of the inflow boundary layer on the wake characteristics of a 0.12 m diameter porous disk with radially non-uniform porosity in terms of mean flow, turbulence, and wake scaling. Two-dimensional two-component particle image velocimetry measurements within the wake are performed up to 7.5 diameters downstream as the disk is lowered deeper into a boundary layer that is representative of a neutral atmospheric boundary layer over a flat terrain. Results show that otherwise symmetrical wake velocity profiles that exist outside the boundary layer get skewed and sheared around the disk centerline in the boundary layer due to the inflow wind shear. The turbulent kinetic energy, its production, and Reynolds shear stress levels in the wake get asymmetrical around the centerline of the disk such that the production of turbulent kinetic energy is observed to be higher above centerline. Due to the inflow shear, the wake centerline gets shifted downwards (i.e., toward the wind tunnel wall), which is in contrast to the observations on real wind turbine wakes in the literature where the wake actually lifts up. The asymmetrical and skewed velocity profiles both in the streamwise and cross-stream directions can be collapsed onto a single function by using proper wake scaling parameters based on the ratio of local strain to average strain within the velocity profile calculated separately for either side of the wake.