Wind Turbine Wake and Helicopter Operations - Wind turbine wake identification, Partner contributions

With the increasing amount of wind energy produced by wind turbines both on land and offshore, together with the close interaction of helicopter flight in the direct vicinity of a wind turbine (park), the need to investigate the interrelation between the wind turbine wake and the effect on helicopter handling and therefor safety and the influence on operations, was recognised by both the Civil Aviation Authorities, Airport organisations and helicopter operators. The Garteur Helicopter Group of Responsables initiated the formation of the HC-AG23 Action Group ‘Helicopter operations and wind turbine wakes’, to set up a team of researchers from European industry and research institutes to cooperate on acquiring relevant data, to identify wind turbine wake parameters, investigate the helicopter dynamics while flying into the wake by off-line and piloted simulation studies, identify potential safety issues and finally, report and disseminate the findings to the proper authorities. This deliverable reports on a survey of the available experimental data and the analytical/theoretical models as well as available computational methods to describe the air wake for typical wind turbines. The collected data will be used to produce a database of wind turbine wake properties. With the collected data the group may identify appropriate wake characteristics that will support the subsequent activities within the Action Group: • Define representative test cases for a wind turbine and helicopter combination. • Support the set up and integration of appropriate wind turbine wind wake models for the use in the theoretical studies and helicopter flight simulation tools. • Support the wake experimental studies for analysis of the wake and its effects on the handling quality and safety aspects of helicopter flight across the wake.