Higher shares of variable renewable generation have already raised the demand for energy storage and network services in the power sector. As this trend is expected to continue, the combination of these services in a large scale will be imperative toward a carbon-free power sector. A very promising way to perform this task without any additional emissions is through stoichiometric combustion of the electrolysis products (H 2 and O 2 ) in steam and the injection of the generated steam in a conventional steam cycle. However, this can be done only if the product steam has only traces of the two reactants in it, in order to avoid damage of downstream components. The amount of residual gas in the product steam is a direct function of the combustion efficiency. This work analyzes the combustion efficiency of a H 2 /O 2 combustor under steam dilution. As the product gas of such a combustor is primarily steam, the intended efficiency measurement is very challenging and cannot be performed with conventional methods. Instead, an in situ measurement of oxygen and hydrogen is applied. The respective diagnostics and challenges are presented along with the combustion efficiency results. Moreover, a combustor design study is carried out and different flame types (jet and swirl-stabilized flames) are compared. The initial results demonstrate that steam-diluted H 2 /O 2 combustion can achieve an efficiency close to 100%.

The precessing vortex core (PVC) is a helically shaped coherent flow structure that occurs in reacting and nonreacting swirling flows undergoing vortex breakdown. In swirl-stabilized combustors, the PVC affects important phenomena, such as turbulent mixing and thermoacoustic oscillations. In this work, a closed-loop flow control system is developed, which allows for phase-opposition control of the PVC, to achieve appropriate conditions to systematically investigate the influence of the PVC on turbulent flames. The control consists of a zero-net-mass-flux actuator placed in the mixing section of the combustor, where the PVC is most receptive to periodic forcing. The flow control system is characterized from pressure measurements and particle image velocimetry (PIV) and the impact on flame dynamics is extracted from OH*-chemiluminescence measurements. The data reveal that the PVC amplitude is considerably suppressed by the phase-opposition control without changing the overall characteristics of flow and flame, which is crucial to study the exclusive effect of the PVC on combustion processes. Moreover, the control allows the PVC amplitude to be adjusted gradually to investigate the PVC impact on turbulent mixing and flame dynamics. It is revealed that the PVC-induced flow fluctuations mainly affect the large-scale mixing, while the small scale mixing remains unchanged. This is because the suppression of the PVC allows other modes to become more dominant and the overall turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget remains unchanged. The destabilization of other modes, such as the axisymmetric mode, may have some implications on thermoacoustic instability.

The wind industry needs airfoil data for ranges of angle of attack (AoA) much wider than those of aviation applications, since large portions of the blades may operate in stalled conditions for a significant part of their lives. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are even more affected by this need, since data sets across the full incidence range of 180 deg are necessary for a correct performance prediction at different tip-speed ratios. However, the relevant technical literature lacks data in deep and poststall regions for nearly every airfoil. Within this context, the present study shows experimental and numerical results for the well-known NACA 0021 airfoil, which is often used for Darrieus VAWT design. Experimental data were obtained through dedicated wind tunnel measurements of a NACA 0021 airfoil with surface pressure taps, which provided further insight into the pressure coefficient distribution across a wide range of AoAs. The measurements were conducted at two different Reynolds numbers (Re = 140 k and Re = 180 k): each experiment was performed multiple times to ensure repeatability. Dynamic AoA changes were also investigated at multiple reduced frequencies. Moreover, dedicated unsteady numerical simulations were carried out on the same airfoil shape to reproduce both the static polars of the airfoil and some relevant dynamic AoA variation cycles tested in the experiments. The solved flow field was then exploited both to get further insight into the flow mechanisms highlighted by the wind tunnel tests and to provide correction factors to discard the influence of the experimental apparatus, making experiments representative of open-field behavior. The present study is then thought to provide the scientific community with high quality, low-Reynolds airfoil data, which may enable in the near future a more effective design of Darrieus VAWTs.

After almost 20 years of absence from research agendas, interest in the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) technology is presently increasing again, after the research stalled in the mid 90's in favor of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs). However, due to the lack of research in past years, there are a significantly lower number of design and certification tools available, many of which are underdeveloped if compared to the corresponding tools for HAWTs. To partially fulfill this gap, a structural finite element analysis (FEA) model, based on the Open Source multiphysics library PROJECT::CHRONO, was recently integrated with the lifting line free vortex wake (LLFVW) method inside the Open Source wind turbine simulation code QBlade and validated against numerical and experimental data of the SANDIA 34 m rotor. In this work, some details about the newly implemented nonlinear structural model and its coupling to the aerodynamic solver are first given. Then, in a continuous effort to assess its accuracy, the code capabilities were here tested on a small-scale, fast-spinning (up to 450 rpm) VAWT. The study turbine is a helix shaped, 1 kW Darrieus turbine, for which other numerical analyses were available from a previous study, including the results coming from both a one-dimensional beam element model and a more sophisticated shell element model. The resulting data represented an excellent basis for comparison and validation of the new aero-elastic coupling in QBlade. Based on the structural and aerodynamic data of the study turbine, an aero-elastic model was then constructed. A purely aerodynamic comparison to experimental data and a blade element momentum (BEM) simulation represented the benchmark for QBlade aerodynamic performance. Then, a purely structural analysis was carried out and compared to the numerical results from the former. After the code validation, an aero-elastically coupled simulation of a rotor self-start has been performed to demonstrate the capabilities of the newly developed model to predict the highly nonlinear transient aerodynamic and structural rotor response.

Fractal analysis is undertaken to characterize flame surface fluctuations on an unconfined turbulent premixed flame and the resulting far-field acoustics fluctuations. Results indicate that combustion noise is monofractal and is characterized by an anticorrelated structure with a Hurst exponent less than 0.5. The anticorrelated nature was identified in the pressure fluctuations as well as flame surface fluctuations for small time-scales. Additionally, results suggest that flame surface fluctuations are multifractal for large time scales. The calculated Hurst exponent increases noticeably with the equivalence ratio and decreases slightly with Reynolds number for the investigated operating conditions. Variation in the Hurst exponent for combustion noise data is compared with a case study of synthetic fluctuations comprised of linear combinations of white and 1/f 2 noise. These results provide a more detailed characterization of the temporal structure of flame surface fluctuations and resulting noise emission from turbulent premixed flames than is presently known.

The evolution of the wake of a wind turbine contributes significantly to its operation and performance, as well as to those of machines installed in the vicinity. The inherent unsteady and three-dimensional (3D) aerodynamics of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) have hitherto limited the research on wake evolution. In this paper, the wakes of both a troposkien and a H-type VAWT rotor are investigated by comparing experiments and calculations. Experiments were carried out in the large-scale wind tunnel of the Politecnico di Milano, where unsteady velocity measurements in the wake were performed by means of hot wire anemometry. The geometry of the rotors was reconstructed in the open-source wind-turbine software QBlade, developed at the TU Berlin. The aerodynamic model makes use of a lifting line free-vortex wake (LLFVW) formulation, including an adapted Beddoes-Leishman unsteady aerodynamic model; airfoil polars are introduced to assign sectional lift and drag coefficients. A wake sensitivity analysis was carried out to maximize the reliability of wake predictions. The calculations are shown to reproduce several wake features observed in the experiments, including blade-tip vortex, dominant and minor vortical structures, and periodic unsteadiness caused by sectional dynamic stall. The experimental assessment of the simulations illustrates that the LLFVW model is capable of predicting the unsteady wake development with very limited computational cost, thus making the model ideal for the design and optimization of VAWTs.

During the commissioning and stand-still cycles of wind turbines, the rotor is often stopped or even locked leaving the rotor blades at a standstill. When the blades are at a standstill, angles of attack on the blades can be very high, and it is therefore possible that they experience vortex-induced vibrations. This experiment and analysis helps to explain the different regimes of flow at very high angles of attack, particularly on moderately twisted and tapered blades. A single blade was tested at two different flow velocities at a range of angles of attack with flow tuft visualization and hotwire measurements of the wake. Hotwire wake measurements were able to show the gradual inception and ending of certain flow regimes. The power spectral densities of these measurements were normalized in terms of Strouhal number based on the projected chord to show that certain wake features have a relatively constant Strouhal number. The shedding frequency appears then to be relatively independent of chord taper and twist. Vortex generators (VGs) were tested but were found to have little influence in this case. Gurney flaps were found to modify the wake geometry, stall onset angles, and in some cases the shedding frequency.

The precessing vortex core (PVC) represents a helical-shaped coherent flow structure typically occurring in both reacting and nonreacting swirling flows. Until now, the fundamental impact of the PVC on flame dynamics, thermoacoustic instabilities, and pollutant emissions is still unclear. In order to identify and investigate these mechanisms, the PVC needs to be controlled effectively with a feedback control system. A previous study successfully applied feedback control in a generic swirling jet setup. The next step is to transfer this approach into a swirl-stabilized combustor, which poses big challenges on the actuator and sensor design and placement. In this paper, different actuator designs are investigated with the goal of controlling the PVC dynamics. The actuation strategy aims to force the flow near the origin of the instability—the so-called wavemaker. To monitor the PVC dynamics, arrays of pressure sensors are flush-mounted at the combustor inlet and the combustion chamber walls. The best sensor placement is evaluated with respect to the prediction of the PVC dynamics. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to evaluate the passive impact of the actuator shape on the mean flow field. The performance of each actuator design is evaluated from lock-in experiments showing excellent control authority for two out of seven actuators. All measurements are conducted at isothermal conditions in a prototype of a swirl-stabilized combustor.

Recently, a new interest in vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) technology is fueled by research on floating support structures for large-scale offshore wind energy application. For the application on floating structures at multimegawatt size, the VAWT concept may offer distinct advantages over the conventional horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) design. As an example, VAWT turbines are better suited for upscaling, and at multimegawatt size, the problem of periodic fatigue cycles reduces significantly due to a very low rotational speed. Additionally, the possibility to store the transmission and electricity generation system at the bottom, compared to the tower top as in a HAWT, can lead to a considerable reduction of material logistics costs. However, as most VAWT research stalled in the mid 1990s, no sophisticated and established tools to investigate this concept further exist today. Due to the complex interaction between unsteady aerodynamics and movement of the floating structure, fully coupled simulation tools modeling both aero and structural dynamics are needed. A nonlinear lifting line free vortex wake (LLFVW) code was recently integrated into the open source wind turbine simulation suite qblade . This paper describes some of the necessary adaptions of the algorithm, which differentiates it from the usual application in HAWT simulations. A focus is set on achieving a high robustness and computational efficiency. A short validation study compares LLFVW results with those of a two-dimensional (2D) unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation.

Due to the rapid progress in high-performance computing and the availability of increasingly large computational resources, Navier–Stokes (NS) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) now offers a cost-effective, versatile, and accurate means to improve the understanding of the unsteady aerodynamics of Darrieus wind turbines and deliver more efficient designs. In particular, the possibility of determining a fully resolved flow field past the blades by means of CFD offers the opportunity to both further understand the physics underlying the turbine fluid dynamics and to use this knowledge to validate lower-order models, which can have a wider diffusion in the wind energy sector, particularly for industrial use, in the light of their lower computational burden. In this context, highly spatially and temporally refined time-dependent three-dimensional (3D) NS simulations were carried out using more than 16,000 processor cores per simulation on an IBM BG/Q cluster in order to investigate thoroughly the 3D unsteady aerodynamics of a single blade in Darrieus-like motion. Particular attention was paid to tip losses, dynamic stall, and blade/wake interaction. CFD results are compared with those obtained with an open-source code based on the lifting line free vortex wake model (LLFVW). At present, this approach is the most refined method among the “lower-fidelity” models, and as the wake is explicitly resolved in contrast to blade element momentum (BEM)-based methods, LLFVW analyses provide 3D flow solutions. Extended comparisons between the two approaches are presented and a critical analysis is carried out to identify the benefits and drawbacks of the two approaches.