Experimental Characterization and Predictive Modeling of a Residential-Scale Wind Turbine

As the demand for wind energy increases, industry and policymakers have been pushing to place larger wind turbines in denser wind farms. Furthermore, there are higher expectations for reliability of turbines, which require a better understanding of the complex interaction between wind turbines and the fluid flow that drives them. As a test platform, we used the Whisper 500 residential scale wind turbine to support structural and atmospheric modeling efforts undertaken to improve understanding of these interactions. The wind turbine’s flexible components (blades, tower, etc.) were modeled using finite elements, and modal tests of these components were conducted to provide data for experimental validation of the computational models. Finally, experimental data were collected from the wind turbine under real-world operating conditions. The FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence) software developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory was used to predict total system performance in terms of wind input to power output along with other experimentally measurable parameters such as blade tip and tower top accelerations. This paper summarizes the laboratory and field test experiments and concludes with a discussion of the models’ predictive capability. LA-UR-12-24832.