CAA/CFD based noise prediction for wind turbines affected by leading-edge erosion

Abstract

Leading-edge (LE) erosion can cause significant damage to wind turbine rotor blades, which may lead to environmental impacts including both material release into the environment and altered noise emissions from the turbine. The assumption of erosion damage in the preliminary work by Guembel [1] is based on descriptions from the literature, which are derived from field data. The result is summarized as a function dependent on the blade length and location of a horizontal-axis wind turbine. For an average three-bladed onshore turbine in Germany, a maximum material loss of 139 kg over a 20-year lifespan is estimated. Together with that comes a simplified geometrical description of the damaged LE, which can be used for noise prediction. This paper combines the results from [1] with an efficient 2D CAA based noise prediction for wind turbines [2]. The complex damage is captured by a simplified step geometry and turbulent trailing-edge and LE far-field noise contributions of the turbine are summarized and extrapolated from 2D CFD/CAA computations. The results are presented as spectral plots and noise maps.[1] C. Guembel: Untersuchung des Ausmaßes von Vorderkantenerosion an Rotorblättern von Windkraftanlagen und die damit verbundenen Umweltauswirkungen, Masterthesis, TU Braunschweig, 2024.[2] C. Appel: AIAA 2023-3739