PreciWind: New measuring system for wind turbines

Scientists at the Center for Wind Energy Research (ForWind) are developing a new measurement system for the flow behavior of rotor blades. The PreciWind research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with 3 million euros over three years.

Adapted from Press Release: Nr.: 62

The rotor blades of a wind turbine pass through different heights with different wind speeds and degrees of turbulence of the incoming flow during one rotor revolution. The rotor blades must withstand enormous loads and deform under the dynamically changing flow conditions. "Until now, we have not been able to measure how the flow around a rotor blade changes during a rotor revolution and how the blade behaves and deforms under which conditions on a rotating turbine," says project coordinator Daniel Gleichauf from the Bremen Institute for Measurement, Automation and Quality Science (BIMAQ) at the University of Bremen. "Therefore, our goal is to develop a precise measurement system to be able to record and analyze the dynamic flow behavior of the rotor blades without contact." The mobile laser and thermography measurement system should be able to measure from distances of up to 300 meters.

Better data makes plants more effective

"On the one hand, we will accompany and support the development of the novel measurement system with high-quality simulations. On the other hand, we will further validate our highly efficient simulation models with the help of the measurement data on the real system," explains ForWind scientist Dr. Cristian Gebhardt from the Institute of Statics and Dynamics (ISD) at Leibniz Universität Hannover. With the findings from the project, the properties of rotor blades can be better understood, wind turbines can be operated more effectively and the costs for wind power can be reduced sustainably. In the future, for example, the mobile measuring system could be used for maintenance purposes without having to shut down the turbine.

ForWind bundles research

ForWind is the joint center for wind energy research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen and bundles wind energy research in the Northwest in a research network that is unique in Germany. In PreciWind, the two ForWind members BIMAQ and ISD work closely together with the Dresden-based manufacturer of infrared sensors and measurement technology InfraTec GmbH, the Bremen-based manufacturer of laser-based sensor applications LASE GmbH and the Bremerhaven-based Deutsche WindGuard Engineering GmbH.