DETERMINING AIR FLOW CHARACTERISTIC

Abstract

It is described a method for determining a characteristic of air flow close to a surface of a rotating blade of a wind turbine, the method including: measuring at least one value of the temperature of air close to the surface of the blade; and deriving the characteristic of the air flow based on the temperature value.

Claims

1 A method for determining a characteristic of air flow close to a surface of a rotating blade of a wind turbine, the method comprising: measuring at least one value of the temperature of air close to the surface of the blade; and deriving the characteristic of the air flow based on the temperature value.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the air flow characteristic comprises at least one of: direction of the air flow, in particular direction of the free air flow, in particular angle of attack, laminar to turbulent transition point of the air flow, speed of the air flow, in particular speed the free air flow.

3. The method according to claim 1, comprising: measuring at least two values of the temperature of air close to the surface of the blade at different positions of the surface, in particular close to a leading edge and/or at a pressure side and/or at a suction side of the blade; deriving the air flow characteristic based on the at least two temperature values.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein deriving the air flow characteristic is further based on a geometry of the surface of the blade.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the different positions at which the temperature values are measured have a substantially same radial position but different circumferential positions, in particular close to a leading edge of the blade and/or around an expected laminar to turbulent transition region.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising: determining a location of a maximum of the measured temperature values; deriving a value of a direction of the air flow, in particular angle of attack as measured between the direction of the air flow and a chord line of the blade, based on the location and in particular at least on a geometry of the surface of the blade.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined mapping between location of the maximum difference and the angle of attack is used.

8. The method according to claim 1, comprising: determining a value of a maximum difference between one of the measured temperature values, in particular measured at substantially same radial position, and a temperature value of the ambient air; determining a value of the speed of the air flow based on the maximum difference.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plural temperature values are measured at different, in particular different circumferential, positions on the suction surface and/or the pressure surface of the blade and are used to establish a temperature value profile across the suction and/or pressure surface, in particular at a substantially same radial position; wherein a laminar to turbulent transition point is determined to be present at a location where the temperature values exhibit a largest change.

10. An arrangement for determining a characteristic of air flow close to a surface of a rotating blade of a wind turbine, the arrangement comprising: at least one temperature sensor adapted to measure at least one, in particular at least two, value of the temperature of air close to the surface of the blade; and a processor adapted to derive the characteristic of the air flow based on the temperature value, the arrangement in particular being configured to carry out a method according to claim 1.

11. A blade for a wind turbine, the blade comprising: a surface formed as an air foil; at least one temperature sensor, in particular installed close to at least one of a leading edge and/or, at a pressure side and/or, at a suction side of the blade and/or, in front of and/or behind an expected location of laminar to turbulent transition point of flow, configured to measure a temperature value of air flow close to the surface.

12. The blade according to claim 11, wherein the one sensor comprises plural sensors in particular an array or grid of sensors, the plural sensors comprising at least one group of sensors being arranged at a substantially same radial position but at different circumferential positions.

13. The blade according to claim 11, wherein at least one temperature sensor comprises a thermal sensitive material, wherein a resistivity of the material is a function of the temperature.

14. A wind turbine, comprising: at least one blade according to claim 11 and/or an arrangement according to claim 10.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

[0049] Some of the embodiments will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein like designations denote like members, wherein:

[0050] FIG. 1 illustrates a graph as considered in embodiments of the present invention;

[0051] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a rotor blade according to an embodiment of the present invention in a schematic cross-sectional view together with temperature profiles considered in embodiments of the present invention;

[0052] FIG. 3 schematically illustrates in a cross-sectional view a rotor blade according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0053] FIG. 4 schematically illustrates in a cross-sectional view an embodiment of another rotor blade according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0054] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a wind turbine according to an embodiment of the present invention including an arrangement for determining a characteristic of air flow close to a surface of a rotating blade of the wind turbine according to an embodiment of the present invention which is adapted to carry out a method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0055] The illustration in the drawings is in schematic form. It is noted that in different figures, similar or identical elements are provided with the same reference signs or with reference signs, which are different from the corresponding reference signs only within the first digit.

[0056] Embodiments of the present invention consider the temperature of air flow close to a surface of a rotor blade of a wind turbine. At a stagnation point where the air flow comes to a rest, the temperature increases depending on the Mach number of the fluid (i.e. the ratio of the speed of the fluid to the speed of the sound in the fluid) as well as on the so-called adiabatic constant of the fluid, normally referred to as gamma. If the fluid is air, the adiabatic constant is close to 1.4. The increase of temperature at the stagnation point relative to the static temperature of the fluid (i.e. the temperature in the free stream, in particular ambient temperature) may be expressed as:

T=T_inf * (1+M.sup.2* (gamma-1)/2)

where T_inf represents the free stream static temperature (i.e. the temperature value of the ambient air), M is the Mach number of the flow and gamma is the adiabatic constant of the fluid.

[0057] In a different manner, using the fact that the speed of sound is equal to sqrt (gamma *R* T), where R is the gas constant, the difference of temperature between the free stream temperature and the stagnation temperature may be written as T=T_inf * U_inf.sup.2* (gamma-1)/(2* gamma*R)

[0058] Thus, the increase in the temperature is proportional to the square of the free flow velocity. The increase in temperature is highest at the stagnation point (i.e. where the flow comes to rest and all kinetic energy is transformed to thermal energy/pressure).

[0059] FIG. 1 illustrates in a graph having an abscissa 1 indicating the free flow speed and having an ordinate 3 indicating the difference in the temperature a curve 5 representing the dependency of the difference in temperature from the free flow speed, i.e. the speed of the free air flow. With increasing free flow speed, the difference in the temperature increases. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the estimation of the flow speed is performed indirectly via estimation of the temperature difference between the free flow and the stagnation temperature by a suitable surface measurement close to the leading edge of the rotor blade.

[0060] The incoming flow speed of a modern wind turbine, depending on the radial location, can be up to 90 m/s, meaning that the temperature differences of up to 4 may be measured. The exact temperature differences at the surface of the blade may also be dependent on the surface temperature and the cooling rates. Nevertheless, the measurement of the peak temperature at a given location compared to the temperature at neighbouring predetermined positions (or compared to the ambient temperature) may be calibrated to give an indirect measurement of the flow speed.

[0061] For performing temperature measurements which enable to determine a characteristic of air flow close to the surface of the rotating rotor blade, embodiments of the present invention also provide a rotor blade, one of which is schematically illustrated in FIG. 2 in a cross-sectional view. Thereby, 7 indicates a radial direction and 9 indicates a circumferential direction. The rotor blade 11 is delimited by a surface 13 on a suction side 15 and a pressure side 17. FIG. 2 in particular illustrates the leading edge 19 of the rotor blade, while the trailing edge is not illustrated. A chord line 21 runs from the leading edge 19 to the not illustrated trailing edge. In the region of the leading edge or close to the leading edge and around the leading edge 19, plural temperature sensors 23 are installed below the surface 13 in order to not affect the air flow close to the surface 13 and in particular close to the leading edge 19. The plural temperature sensors 23 are arranged and configured to measure plural temperature values 25 which are then supplied to a processor of an arrangement for determining a characteristic of the air flow, as will be described in more detail below.

[0062] FIG. 2 has also indicated temperature profiles 27 and 29 which were derived for different angles of attack of the air flow. Thereby, the ordinate 31 indicates the difference of the measured temperature at the corresponding position and the temperature of the free air flow, in particular the ambient temperature, while the abscissa 33 indicates the location of the temperature measurement along the cross-section of the surface 13 of the rotor blade 11. For the temperature profile 27, the maximum difference in the temperature c) is observed for a temperature measurement performed at a location 35.

[0063] The curve 5 illustrated in FIG. 1 may for example be obtained by measuring the maximum 4Tmax of the difference in temperature for different speeds of free air flow. In turn, for a measured maximum 4Tmax of a difference in temperature values, the speed of the free air flow can be determined using the curve 5 illustrated in FIG. 1.

[0064] Thus, the determination of the angle of attack 1, 2 is done via a measurement of the temperature profile 27, 29. Herein, it is not the increase of the temperature directly which is measured but the position 35, 43 at which the maximum temperature at the leading edge 19 is located, and a correlation with known positions of the stagnation point as a function of angle of attack. The position 35, 43 of the peak temperature varies as a function of the angle of attack 1, 2. This variation of the peak position 35, 43 with the angle of attack is schematically shown in FIG. 2. With a high fidelity surface temperature measurement, the location 35, 43 of the peak temperature 41, 45, the location 35, 43 of the peak temperature 41, 45 can be estimated and the angle of attack 1, 2 is calculated indirectly via a priori performed calibrations.

[0065] Such a surface temperature can be performed for example with an array or grid of temperature sensors 23, or for example with a thermal sensitive material, where the resistivity of the material is a function of the temperature combined with an appropriate method for field temperature estimation, for example a tomographic approach. The measurement may also be performed with individual sensors 23 distributed along the leading edge 19 of the rotor blade 11.

[0066] Another embodiment of the present invention allows to determine the position along the chord line 21 of the so-called laminar to turbulent transition. The rotor blade 311 schematically illustrated in FIG. 3 in a cross-sectional view along the radial direction 307 according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises for this purpose plural temperature sensors 347 at the suction side 315 and may, optionally, also comprise further plural temperature sensors 349 at the pressure side 317. Optionally, the rotor blade 311 may further comprise plural temperature sensors 323 close to the leading edge 319 for determining angle of attack and/or free flow speed, as has been explained with reference to FIG. 2.

[0067] The plural temperature sensors 347 at the suction side 315 measure the temperature and the different positions along the circumferential direction 309 and supply respective measurement signals 348 to a respective transfer module 351 which may for example be mounted within the inside of the rotor blade 311. The transfer module 351 may then forward the measurement signals 348 to a processor of an arrangement for determining the flow characteristics.

[0068] FIG. 3 further illustrates the temperature profile 353 as determined using the plural temperature sensors 347. Thereby, the ordinate 355 indicates the temperature while the abscissa 357 indicates the location along the cross-section of the surface 313. As can be appreciated from the curve 353, the temperature abruptly increases (or decreases, depending on the relative difference between the air temperature and the blade temperature) at a location 359 which is therefore identified as the point of transition between the laminar flow and the turbulent flow of the air. Thus, the position 359 on the suction side 315 (and the pressure side 317) of the airfoil 313 is the position at which the flow within the boundary layer changes from a laminar regime (with almost no interaction between different flow layers) to a turbulent regime (with high interaction and energy/momentum exchange between the different flow layers). Due to precisely this high rate of energy and momentum exchange in the turbulent portion of the boundary layer, the heat transfer coefficient between the surface of the airfoil and the outer flow is higher than in the laminar portion 361 of the boundary layer. The turbulent portion is indicated with reference sign 363. The difference in heat transfer coefficients has the effect of cooling more (in case the air flow is cooler than the airfoil) or heating more (in case the air flow is warmer than the airfoil) the turbulent portion 363 of the airfoil surface 313. The effect of this is that there will appear a temperature change T between the laminar portion 361 and the turbulent portion 363 of the airfoil 313. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the location 359 at which this temperature change T (e.g. where the derivative of the profile 363 with respect to the position 357 along the surface 313 is highest) is detected can be directly correlated with the location of the transition.

[0069] The surface temperature measurement may be performed via an arrangement of temperature sensors 347 on the suction side and the pressure side of the airfoil covering areas both in front of and behind the expected location of transition. The exact location of transition may depend both on the angle of attack as well as on the Reynolds number, as well as on the soiling state (degree of dirt on the airfoil) of the upstream flow (for example caused by dirt, bugs, salt or ice among others).

[0070] FIG. 4 schematically illustrates another embodiment of a rotor blade 411 according to an embodiment of the present invention in a cross-sectional view along the radial direction 409. Herein, pairs 452 of temperature sensors 447 are installed on or at the suction side 415 of the rotor blade 411. Each pair 452 comprises thus two temperature sensors 447 which are spaced apart in the circumferential direction 409. When a processor detects a great difference between the measurement values of temperature sensors 447 of one pair 448, the processor may determine that the transition point of the transition between the laminar flow and the turbulent flow is between the two respective temperature sensors 447.

[0071] FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a wind turbine 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention which comprises an arrangement 501 for determining a characteristic of air flow close to a surface of a rotating blade of the wind turbine 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thereby, the wind turbine 500 comprises at least one rotor blade 511 which is connected to a hub 551 which is connected to a rotation shaft 553. The rotation shaft drives a generator 555 which generates upon rotation of the rotation shaft 553 electric energy which is supplied for example to a converter 557 which converts the variable frequency power stream to a fixed frequency power stream, for example three-phase power stream. The three-phase power stream is transformed using a transformer 559 to higher voltage and output at output terminals 561 which may supply the power stream to a not illustrated utility grid. The converter is controlled by a controller 563 which may supply appropriate pulse width modulation signals to power switches comprised within the converter 557.

[0072] Thereby, the controller receives operational parameters which also include a characteristic 565 of the air flow which is determined by the processor 567 which is part of the arrangement 501 for determining the characteristic of the air flow. Thereby, the arrangement 501 further comprises plural temperature sensors 523, 547, 549 which may be installed on the rotor blade 501 for example as is illustrated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. The processor 567 receives the measurement signal 548, 525 and/or 550 and derives therefrom the characteristic of the air flow, for example determines angle of attack, point of a transition from a laminar flow to a turbulent flow and/or the speed of the free air flow. Based on the characteristic 565 of the air flow, the controller 563 derives control signals 569 which control the converter 557.

[0073] The wind turbine comprises a nacelle 502 which harbours the generator 555, the converter 557, the arrangement or the processor 547 and the controller 563. The nacelle 502 is mounted on top of a wind turbine tower 504.

[0074] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the three temperature-based measurement methods disclosed above may be used together or individually, at a single or multiple locations of a rotor blade. The information obtained from these measurements in the form of angle of attack, flow speed and transition locations at different radial positions may be used indirectly to improve the performance of the turbine for example by [0075] tailoring the operation characteristics to adapt to the current flow states and thereby improve AEP [0076] work as feedback signals for the control of a pitch system or an individual pitch control system and thereby help in reducing loads/tailoring loads so side-specific conditions [0077] work as feedback signals for the control of active elements on the rotor blade such as flaps or spoilers and thereby help to improve loads/tailor loads to side-specific conditions [0078] give information on azimuthal flow variations such as wind shear [0079] be used to estimate the level of loading of the turbine.

[0080] Although the present invention has been disclosed in the form of preferred embodiments and variations thereon, it will be understood that numerous additional modifications and variations could be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0081] For the sake of clarity, it is to be understood that the use of a or an throughout this application does not exclude a plurality, and comprising does not exclude other steps or elements.