To build larger and more efficient wind turbines at lower cost, lower environmental impact and higher societal acceptance is a challenging endeavour for research and development. At DLR interdisciplinary research is conducted for next generation wind turbines. The institute accounts for the meteorological and acoustic instrumentation in a planned German Research Platform for Wind Energy, a joint attempt of the German Research Alliance for Wind Energy.
Fluid Flow and Sound
At the same time the institute develops numerical and measurement techniques to characterize the three-dimensional, unsteady and turbulent flow upstream and downstream of a wind turbine in a topographically structured terrain under various meteorological conditions. In addition, the propagation and immission of sound, emitted by the turbine blades, in the atmospheric environment is calculated taking into account the actual operation condition of the turbine as well as local topography and meteorology. After validation, the coupled model system for flow and sound dynamics will be used to determine flow and sound propagation classes as well as to derive parametrisations for more simple sound propagation models. Finally, the meteorological sensor system in a virtual wind park environment is modelled and simulated in order to develop measurement strategies and optimise combinations of various in-situ and remote sensing techniques for requirements under eventually real operation conditions.
DLR press release (in German): German Research Alliance for Wind Energy