Experimental and numerical comparison of aerodynamics for a wind turbine rotor model under turbulent inflow conditions

Abstract Computational prediction of aerodynamics for a two-bladed wind turbine rotor model at the profile, blade, and rotor scale are compared to wind tunnel experimental data. Wind tunnel tests are carried out in the large subsonic wind tunnel at the University of Orleans with an instrumented rotor model to obtain power and thrust coefficients, bending moments and pressure chordwise distributions. A passive uniform turbulence grid is used to obtain a turbulence intensity of 3.8% at the front of the rotor. A k − ω SST unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stockes (URANS) simulation with the ISIS-CFD flow solver is conducted with a fully resolved rotor, with and without automatic grid refinement. The focus of this study is to examine the prediction capabilities of the simulation for various physical variables. The simulation demonstrates a relatively good prediction of power and thrust coefficients compared with experimental data with a maximum scatter of 8.5%. The prediction of the pressure coefficient distribution at three different radial positions is satisfactory, but shows discrepancies when it comes to accurately predicting flow separation and Reynolds effects.