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Atmospheric wind field conditions generated by active grids

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Abstract

An active grid for turbulence generation of several rotatable axes with surmounted vanes that can be driven via stepper or servo motors is presented. We investigate the impact of different excitation protocols for the grid. Using such protocols that already have the intermittent structure of turbulence, higher intermittent flows can be achieved. This concept can also be used to generate turbulent flows of high turbulence intensities (>25%) exhibiting integral length scales beyond the typical size of the test section of the wind tunnel. Similar two-point correlations measured by the intermittent statistics of velocity increments that are characteristic for flows of high Reynolds number, i.e. in the atmospheric boundary layer, can be reproduced.

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Notes

  1. According to Taylor’s hypothesis of frozen turbulence the temporal separation τ corresponds to a spatial separation r. They are related by \(r/\overline{U}\).

  2. Program and object-orientated C++ library for data analysis, developed at CERN (http://www.root.cern.ch).

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Stephan Block, René Grüneberger, Holger Koch, Agnieszka Parniak, and Dieter Schmidt for their support during the experimental work. They also wish to thank the Chair of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics at the TU Darmstadt for providing a Stereo-PIV system for related measurements. Matthias Wächter contributed with fruitful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ForWind Center for Wind Energy Research, Institute of Physics, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Pascal Knebel & Joachim Peinke

  2. Institute of Physics, Carl-von-Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Achim Kittel

Authors
  1. Pascal Knebel
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  2. Achim Kittel
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  3. Joachim Peinke
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Correspondence to Joachim Peinke.

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Knebel, P., Kittel, A. & Peinke, J. Atmospheric wind field conditions generated by active grids. Exp Fluids 51, 471–481 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-011-1056-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-011-1056-8

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