Characterization of Wake Initial Condition Influence on Swirling Wake Behavior

摘要

The turbulent swirling wake, a perturbation of axisymmetric wake, contains the minimum flow features relevant to understanding wind turbine wake behavior. Prior studies have shown changes in wake initial conditions, experimental model parameters, can lead to changes in mean wake behavior and development. Many studies which seek to study the swirling wake in isolation contain additional aspects which can hinder understanding of essential flow physics. An experimental model of custom design has been utilized to produce a swirling wake in isolation of complicating effects while allowing variation of model parameters and hence wake initial conditions. Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry has been used to obtain three component velocity fields in the near wake for a multitude of cases. The near wake shows differing wake profile shapes with increases in model rotation rate however these results are not seen at all porosities potentially indicating an interplay between wake generator porosity and rotation speed in modifying wake behavior.