Hot Wire Anemometer Turbulence Measurements in the wind Tunnel of LM Wind Power

Flow measurements were carried out in the wind tunnel of LM Wind Power A/S with a Dantec Streamline CTA system to characterize the flow turbulence. Besides the free tunnel flow with empty test section we also investigated the tunnel flow when two grids with different mesh size were introduced downstream of the nozzle contraction.

We used two different hot wire probes: a dual sensor miniature wire probe (Dantec 55P61) and a triple sensor fiber film probe (Dantec 55R91). The turbulence intensity measured with the dual sensor probe in the empty tunnel section was significantly lower than the one measured with the triple sensor probe.

The turbulence intensity as well as the mean flow velocity downstream of the grids were not homogeneous in space. The grid with the finer mesh size created higher turbulence intensity. For both grids we found a functional form of the power spectral density of the velocity signal which is independent of the flow velocity and Reynolds number.