Preliminary Work Concerning the Near-Wake Structure of the Darrieus Turbine

The work presented here in i s in tended t o p rov ide a p r e l i m i n a r y i n d i c a t i o n o f t h e na tu re o f t h e near wake s t r u c t u r e behind a Darr ieus t u r b i n e . A more impor tant aspect o f t h e work, however, i s t o examine t h e p o t e n t i a l o f a vor tex a n a l y t i c a l model i n making near wake p r e d i c t i o n s . Near wake p r e d i c t i o n s us ing t h i s model a re compared w i t h a f u l l s c a l e Darr ieus t u r b i n e o p e r a t i n g i n a n a t u r a l wind environment. The purpose o f t h i s paper i s t o present some p r e l i m i n a r y r e s u l t s w i t h regard t o u t i l i z a t i o n o f a vo r tex rode1 f o r p r e d i c t i n g wake s t r u c t u r e s . I n o rder t o p lace t h i s work i n proper perspec t i ve t h e f o l l o w i n g b r i e f rev iew i s g iven t o c h a r a c t e r i z e t h e s t a t e o f t h e a r t w i t h regard t o both a n a l y t i c a l and experimental i n v e s t i g a t i o n s which have been undertaken i n t h e pas t .