A Data-Driven Approach for the Prediction of Reynolds Number Effects on
Wind Turbine Airfoil Aerodynamic Polars
Abstract
This study presents a data-driven approach to extrapolate and predict
Reynolds number effects on wind turbine airfoil polars. For this purpose
a database is created using experimentally obtained aerodynamic
coefficients from open literature for airfoils with thickness-to-chord
ratio (t/c) values in the range of 15% to 30% in order to be more
relevant to wind turbine blade design applications. All available
airfoil geometries are parameterized using PARSEC methodology, and a
Pareto analysis is performed to understand the sensitivity of maximum
lift coefficient ( C l max ) and minimum drag coefficient ( C d min )
variations to geometrical inputs as well as to the Reynolds number using
statistical tools. Based on this analysis, response surfaces are
generated to predict C l max and C d min of a given airfoil operating at
a given Reynolds number. These predicted values are then utilized in a
power-law based estimation methodology to obtain predictions for full
polars, which are then compared to experimental data for selected
airfoil test cases. The results show that the response surfaces
generated through the current data-driven approach as well as the full
polar prediction methodology show better agreement with experimental
results compared to those obtained using numerical simulations-based
extrapolation schemes. For airfoil types that might be under-represented
in the database (such as symmetrical airfoils), the prediction results
can be erroneous, especially at very high Reynolds numbers that are not
in the constructed database. In the power-law based polar prediction
methodology, utilizing a reference Reynolds number that is closer to the
target value provides more accurate predictions for both lift and drag
polars.