Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic study of the interaction between a 2D wind turbine airfoil and a cylinder wake using PIV and farfield microphones

This paper investigates the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of a 2D airfoil specially designed for wind turbine applications using PIV and a far field microphone array. The experiments were carried out in Syracuse University's Anechoic Wind Tunnel, both with and without large scale unsteadiness in the freestream generated by an upstream 2D cylinder. The results from both PIV measurements and surface pressure measurements show that the upstream cylinder created highly unsteady aerodynamic loading on the airfoil model. We also observed much higher lift fluctuation at high angle of attack due to the unsteady boundary separation on the airfoil suction surface. In the meantime, the farfield acoustic signals indicate that the large scale unsteadiness in the freestream generated higher noise especially at the lower frequency band.