Experimental investigations of boundary layer impact on the airfoil aerodynamic forces of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine in turbulent inflows

In order to check whether the developed airfoil UMY02-T01-26 can improve aerodynamic performance, a multiport device is used to investigate the pressure distribution acting on a single blade surface under inflow conditions. In this experiment, aerodynamic forces are discussed with different Reynolds numbers of Re = 0.5 × 105, 1.0 × 105, 1.5 × 105 and 2.0 × 105. Furthermore, for the purpose of clarifying the impact of turbulence intensity, the aerodynamic forces characteristics of HAWT airfoil are estimated in the case of different turbulence intensities generated by static turbulence grids. According to the wind tunnel experimental analysis, it can be known that the blade boundary layer tape has no significant effects on the drag coefficient with or without turbulence grids. For the low turbulence intensity (without grid), the airfoil performance is improved when the boundary layer tape is attached near the leading edge. For the high turbulence intensity (with grid), in the case of the Re = 0.5 × 105, the pressure coefficient presents a steady value from some back positions of x/c = 0.20, where the boundary layer tape is attached on the trailing edge position.