A full-scale prediction method for wind turbine rotor noise by using wind tunnel test data

• Introduced for full-scale rotor noise estimation by using wind tunnel test results.
• Performed the noise test on the 2D airfoil and a small-scale rotor.
• Adjustment of the simulation distance and noise level from small-scale to full-scale.
• Comparison between the wind tunnel scaling result and the full-scale rotor noise.

The development of a low-noise wind turbine rotor and propeller is often cost-effective and is in fact a race against time to those who wish to build and test a small-scale rotor instead of an expensive full-scale rotor. The issue of this approach has to do with the interpretation of wind tunnel model test data in terms of both the frequency band and sound pressure level information for the noise scaling effect.This paper discusses a prediction method for the estimation of the noise generated from a full-scale wind turbine rotor using wind tunnel test data measured with both a small-scale rotor and a 2D section of the blade. The 2D airfoil self-noise and the scaled rotor noise were investigated with a series of wind tunnel experiments. Wind tunnel data post-processing considered four aspects: removal of the test condition effect, scaling to full scale, consideration of the wind turbine rotor operating conditions, and the most important terms of full-scale rotor noise as adjustments to address the differences between the wind tunnel test conditions and the full-scale operating conditions.A full-scale rotor noise prediction results comparison was performed by initially dividing the test conditions into the condition of a 2D section noise test and the condition of a small-scale rotor noise test. Based on an airfoil section, the rotor was selected from a blade section at r/R = 0.75. The small-scale rotor was scaled down by a factor of 5.71 for the wind tunnel test.Finally, the full-scale rotor noise data was compared with the wind tunnel test data using a scaling estimation method.