Wake Development of a Model Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

At the Portland State University wind tunnel facility, an experiment is conducted to observe the downstream development of the wake past a model vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). The flow domain is composed of streamwise-spanwise planes at mid-height of the VAWT rotor and data is obtained via particle image velocimetry (PIV). The flow field is assessed by analyzing contours of mean velocities and the full Reynolds stress tensor. Furthermore, profiles of the aforementioned quantities and flow parameters are discussed in the context of downstream evolution/flow development.