Wind tunnel testing of wake steering with dynamic wind direction changes

The performance of an open-loop wake-steering controller is investigated with a new unique set of wind tunnel experiments. A cluster of three scaled wind turbines, placed on a large turntable, is exposed to a turbulent inflow and dynamically changing wind directions, resulting in dynamically varying wake interactions. The changes in wind direction were sourced and scaled from a field-measured time history and mirrored onto the movement of the turntable. Exploiting the known, repeatable, and controllable conditions of the wind tunnel, this study investigates the following effects: fidelity of the model used for synthesizing the controller, assumption of steady-state vs. dynamic plant behavior, wind direction uncertainty, the robustness of the formulation in regard to this uncertainty, and a finite yaw rate. The results were analyzed for power production of the cluster, fatigue loads, and yaw actuator duty cycle. The study highlights the importance of using a robust formulation and plant flow models of appropriate fidelity and the existence of possible margins for improvement by the use of dynamic controllers.