Determining at least one characteristic of a boundary layer of a wind turbine rotor blade

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11378487-B2
Application number	US-201816630046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2018
Priority date	Jul 14, 2017
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

Provided is a method for determining at least one characteristic of a boundary layer a wind turbine rotor blade, including capturing at least one movement of at least one flexible element of at least one sensor being attached to or being part of a surface of the rotor blade, determining the at least one characteristic of the boundary layer based on the at least one captured movement of the at least one flexible element. Further, a sensor device, a wind turbine and a device as well as a computer program product and a computer readable medium are suggested for performing the method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for determining at least one characteristic of a boundary layer of a wind turbine rotor blade, comprising:
capturing at least one movement of at least one flexible element of at least one sensor being attached to or being part of a surface of the rotor blade, and
determining the at least one characteristic of the boundary layer based on the at least one captured movement of the at least one flexible element,
wherein the at least one characteristic of the boundary layer is determined based on an air flow characteristic of the boundary layer,
wherein the at least one flexible element comprises a bluff body,
wherein a vortex shedding frequency of the bluff body is determined on a basis of the captured movement, and
wherein the air flow characteristic is determined on a basis of the determined vortex shedding frequency.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one air flow characteristic of the boundary layer is represented by
an air flow velocity, and/or
an air flow direction.

3. A device comprising a processor unit configured to implement the method according to claim 1 .

4. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device having computer readable program code stored therein, said program code executable by a processor of a computer system to implement the method according to claim 1 .

5. A sensor device comprising:
at least one flexible element comprising a bluff body, the at least one flexible element attached to or being a part of a surface of at least one rotor blade of a wind turbine,
a measuring unit for capturing at least one movement of the least one flexible element and for determining a vortex shedding frequency of the bluff body on a basis of the captured movement, and
a communication unit for providing at least one movement information representing the at least one captured movement of the at least one flexible element to a processing unit for determining at least one characteristic of a boundary layer of the at least one rotor blade, w herein the at least one characteristic of the boundary layer is determined based on an air flow characteristic of the boundary layer, w herein the air flow characteristic is determined on a basis of the determined vortex shedding frequency.

6. A wind turbine, comprising:
at least one rotor blade,
at least one sensor device attached to or being a part of a surface of the at least one rotor blade, wherein the at least one sensor device includes at least one flexible element including a bluff body, a measuring unit for capturing at least one movement of the least one flexible element, and a communication unit for providing at least one movement information representing the at least one captured movement of the at least one flexible element, and
a processing unit that is arranged for determining at least one characteristic of a boundary layer of the at least one rotor blade based on the at least one movement information provided by the sensor device wherein the at least one characteristic of the boundary layer is determined based on an air flow characteristic of the boundary layer, wherein a vortex shedding frequency of the bluff body is determined on a basis of the captured movement, and wherein the air flow characteristic is determined on a basis of the determined vortex shedding frequency.

Assignees

• Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy As

Inventors

• Egedal Per
• Bay Enevoldsen Peder
• Fiedel Moritz
• Gomez Gonzalez Alejandro

Classifications

• F05B2270/321

  Wind directions · CPC title

• F03D17/00 Primary

  Monitoring or testing of wind motors, e.g. diagnostics (testing during commissioning of wind motors F03D13/30) · CPC title

• G01M9/065 Primary

  dealing with flow · CPC title

• G01B7/24

  using change in magnetic properties · CPC title

• G01B7/22

  using change in capacitance · CPC title