Wake characteristics of a model wind turbine and an actuator disk model

Abstract

Wake characteristics of a model wind turbine and a porous disk respectively immersed in a uniform free stream and turbulent boundary layers were studied experimentally. Under the latter experimental condition, two boundary layers of different thickness, about 5.5 and 1.5 D, respectively, where D denotes the diameter of the model wind turbine, were considered. Based on the hot-wire velocity measurements in the near wake region, it is found that irrespective of the models the wake flow development in the thicker boundary layer appear to be dominated by the large scale eddies in the boundary layer, whereas in the thinner boundary layer, the wake flow development relies on the turbulent eddies generated by the model, similar to the situation that the model is immersed in a uniform free stream.