Final published version, 1.42 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY
Final published version
Licence: CC BY
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing wind turbine energy losses due to blade leading edge erosion cavities with parametric CAD and 3D CFD
AU - Castorrini, Alessio
AU - Cappugi, Lorenzo
AU - Bonfiglioli, Aldo
AU - Campobasso, Sergio
PY - 2020/9/28
Y1 - 2020/9/28
N2 - Wind turbine leading edge erosion is a complex installation site-dependent process that spoils the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine rotors. This gradual damage process often starts with the formation of pits and gouges leading ultimately to skin delamination. This study demonstrates the application of open source parametric CAD functionalities for the generation of blade geometries with leading edge erosion damage consisting of pits and gouges. This capability is key to the development of high-fidelity computational aerodynamics frameworks for both advancing knowledge on eroded blade aerodynamics, and quantifying energy losses due to erosion. The considered test case is an offshore 5 MW turbine featuring leading edge pit and gouge damage in the outboard part of its blades. The power and loads of the nominal and damaged turbines are determined by means of a blade element momentum theory code using airfoil force data obtained with 3D Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics. An annual energy loss between about 1 and 2.5 percent of the nominal annual energy yield is encountered for the considered leading edge damages. The benefits of adaptive power control strategies for mitigating erosion-induced energy losses are also highlighted.
AB - Wind turbine leading edge erosion is a complex installation site-dependent process that spoils the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine rotors. This gradual damage process often starts with the formation of pits and gouges leading ultimately to skin delamination. This study demonstrates the application of open source parametric CAD functionalities for the generation of blade geometries with leading edge erosion damage consisting of pits and gouges. This capability is key to the development of high-fidelity computational aerodynamics frameworks for both advancing knowledge on eroded blade aerodynamics, and quantifying energy losses due to erosion. The considered test case is an offshore 5 MW turbine featuring leading edge pit and gouge damage in the outboard part of its blades. The power and loads of the nominal and damaged turbines are determined by means of a blade element momentum theory code using airfoil force data obtained with 3D Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics. An annual energy loss between about 1 and 2.5 percent of the nominal annual energy yield is encountered for the considered leading edge damages. The benefits of adaptive power control strategies for mitigating erosion-induced energy losses are also highlighted.
KW - wind turbine blade leading edge erosion
KW - wind turbine and wind farm energy losses
KW - machine learning
KW - computational fluid dynamics
KW - wind turbine blade aerodynamics
U2 - 10.1088/1742-6596/1618/5/052015
DO - 10.1088/1742-6596/1618/5/052015
M3 - Journal article
VL - 1618
JO - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
JF - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
SN - 1742-6588
M1 - 052015
T2 - TORQUE
Y2 - 28 September 2020 through 2 October 2020
ER -