A Blade Motion Simulator for Unsteady Aerodynamic Measurement of Wind Turbine Blades

This paper briefly introduces a novel blade motion simulator with a modular and scalable design that has the ability to simulate a combination of both pitching and plunging motions together with the possibility of adding bending or torsional compliances. The device can setup motions while adjusting amplitude, frequency, and time-lag independently. This option makes it possible to simulate both energy-harvesting and propulsive flapping motions. Also, the installation of different torsional and bending compliances with different spring stiffness and orientations can simulate different material properties in order to take aeroelastic effects into account during the motion. Moreover, some results of wind tunnel tests are also presented. These tests demonstrate that the oscillatory motion generated by the simulator largely conforms to the desired motion programmed into the device. Also, the results of measuring the lift coefficient have been compared with Theodorsen's theory, and a good accuracy has been observed. Also, in the following, as a practical example of the performance of the device for a specific case, the hysteresis loop of forces and torque of a blade has been analyzed and investigated.