Wind Tunnel Experimental Investigation on the Aeroelastic Responses of Wind Turbine Airfoils

The unsteady aeroelastic design is the bottleneck technology for the large-scale design of the wind turbine blade. It is of great scientific significance and high challenge to carry out experimental research on the aeroelastic response of the blade. In this paper, an aeroelastic similarity criterion is proposed, and an airfoil pitch-plunge two-degree-of-freedom wind tunnel aeroelastic experimental platform simulating the three-dimensional blade bending-torsional coupled aeroelastic response is constructed. The installation angle and structural stiffness are analyzed for aeroelastic stability and oscillation. Four different types of aeroelastic response are found in this study. Increasing stiffness and installation angle can improve the critical wind speed of the negative stall flutter to a certain extent. These results can provide guidance for the aeroelastic design and numerical verification of flexible blades. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.