Wind Turbines: Unsteady Aerodynamics and Inflow Noise

the highest emphasis in semi-empirical models. However it is an open question whether inflow noise has a high emphasis. This illustrates the need to investigate and improve the semi-empirical model for noise due to atmospheric turbulence. Three different aerodynamical models are investigated in order to estimate the lift fluctuations due to unsteady aerodynamics (Sears, W. R.: 1941, Some aspects of non-stationary airfoil theory and its practical application; Goldstein, M. E. and Atassi, H. M.: 1976, A complete second-order theory for the unsteady flow about an airfoil due to a periodic gust; and Graham, J. M. R.: 1970, Lifting surface theory for the problem of an arbitrarily yawed sinusoidal gust incident on a thin aerofoil in incompressible flow). Two of these models are investigated to find the unsteady lift distribution or pressure difference as function of chordwise position on the aerofoil (Sears, W. R.: 1941; and Graham, J. M. R.: 1970). An acoustic model is investigated using a model for the lift distribution as input (Amiet, R. K.: 1975, Acoustic radiation from an airfoil in a turbulent stream). The two models for lift distribution are used in the acoustic model. One of the models for lift distribution is for completely anisotropic turbulence and the other for perfectly isotropic turbulence, and so is also the corresponding models for the lift fluctuations derived from the models for lift distribution. The models for lift distribution and lift are compared with pressure data which are obtained by microphones placed flush with the surface of an aerofoil. The pressure data are from two experiments in a wind tunnel, one experiment with a NACA0015 profile and a second with a NACA63415 profile. The turbulence is measured by a triple wired hotwire instrument in the experiment with a NACA0015 profile. Comparison of the aerodynamical models with data shows that the models capture the general characteristics of the measurements, but the data are hampered by background noise from the fan propellers in the wind tunnel. The measurements are in between the completely anisotropic turbulent model and the perfectly isotropic turbulent model. This indicates that the models capture the aerodynamics well. Thus the measurements suggest that the noise due to atmospheric turbulence can be described and modeled by the two models for lift distribution. It was not possible to test the acoustical model by the measurements presented in this work.