Aeroacoustic Optimization of
Wind Turbine Airfoils by
Combining Thermographic and
Acoustic Measurement Data
C. Dollinger, M. Sorg, P. Thiemann; University of Bremen
Bremen Institute for Metrology, Automation and Quality Science (BIMAQ)
External Article
Introduction
The noise emissions of wind turbines lead to extensive
problems for manufacturers as the approval process and
the development site are influenced. Against this back­
ground the industry requires immediate action. Due to
legal requirements and acceptance problems of wind tur­
bines in the population, acoustic emissions are a signifi­
cant issue for manufacturers. Over the last decade the
average rotor diameter of onshore wind turbines increased
from approximately 27  m to 82  m. In 2011 a maximum
diameter of 126 m was achieved [1]. With increasing rotor
diameter, the noise emission increases as well. It acts as an
aerodynamic brake and significantly reduces the potential
energy yield. Many wind turbines are planned with techni­
cal compromises favoring the reduction of noise emissions
over power output. The acoustic-aerodynamic optimiza­
tion of rotor blades could reduce these negative effects of
the technical compromises and increase the efficiency.
With current methods, a fast three-dimensional mapping
of the noise sources with respect to the flow conditions on
the surface of rotor blades is implemented satisfactorily
neither in wind tunnels nor for wind turbines.
In this article first results of a combined measuring method
C. Dollinger
English
for the acoustic-aerodynamic optimization of rotor blades
for wind turbines are presented. The method combines
thermographic data for turbulence boundary layer analysis
with the measurement data of an acoustic camera. Thus,
the amplitudes and frequencies of the three-dimensional
acoustic emission field can be associated with the geome­
try of the rotor blade and the inflow-conditions.
Thermographic measurement systems detect the temper­
ature distribution of the rotor blade surface. The surface
temperature is influenced by a variety of parameters and
can be correlated to the air flow.
Test Set-up
The flow tests were conducted at the Deutsche WindGuard
Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel in Bremerhaven. Laminar air
flows at speeds of up to 360 km/h and chord-Reynolds
numbers of up to 6 million can be generated in this acous­
tically optimized wind tunnel. The relatively large wind
tunnel is designed for acoustic and aerodynamic research
and allows testing of large models and full-sized wind tur­
bine airfoil segments. Different velocities up to 100  m/s
and positive as well as negative angles of attack were
adjusted to investigate several different operating condi­
DEWI MAGAZIN NO. 43, AUGUST 2013 61
Fig. 1: Geometrical arrangement of the microphone array in the wind tunnel wall
on the suction side. Fig. 2: Lift CL over the angle of attack (α) in simulation
with XFOIL and measured in the wind tunnel.

Fig. 3: Thermographic images aligned to the geometry of the

airfoil with turbulent boundary layer transition on a)
the suction side and b) on the pressure side of the
airfoil.

Fig. 4: Position of the calculated transition over

the angle of attack (α) compared to an
XFOIL-simulation a) on the suction side (Top
Xtr) and b) on the pressure side (Bot Xtr) of
the airfoil.

Fig. 5: Results of an acoustic measurement of

the same airfoil. Airfoil a) untreated and
b) with badly applied serration (sawtooth
geometry) at the trailing edge.

62 DEWI MAGAZIN NO. 43, AUGUST 2013

tions of the rotor blade. The wind tunnel is of the closed
return type and can be operated either with an open or a
closed test section. The airfoils are mounted vertically
between two turntables. The Lift force can be measured
directly through force measurements on the turntables
and indirectly through pressure measurements both on
the wind tunnel sidewalls and on the models surface. A
combination of a six-component force balance attached to
the base turntable, and a two-component force balance
attached to the upper turntable allows a direct measure­
ment of the total wind forces acting on the airfoil. A total
of 64 independent pressure sensors measure the pressure
signature on the test section walls. 32 pressure taps in
each of the test section sidewalls allow an indirect mea­
surement of the lift forces produced by the airfoil.
Furthermore, a wake rake with 52 total head pressure sen­
sors and 12 static pressure sensors is available. Different
airfoils with a chord length of 800  mm and a span of
1250 mm were used.
The thermographic measurements were accomplished
with two different thermographic imaging systems. On the
suction side of the airfoil a 640 x 480 pixel microbolome­
ter-focal-plane-array with a wavelength range from
7.5  to  14  µm and a temperature resolution of at least
0.03 K is used. The thermographic sensor on the pressure
side is a 640 x 512 pixel InSb-focal-plane-array. The sensor
is sensitive in the wavelength range from 2 to 5 μm and is
cooled by a Stirling cycle. The temperature resolution of
the cooled array is below 0.025 K. Both cameras observe
the airfoil through Germanium lenses in the wind tunnel
walls. IR radiation with a wavelength between 2 and 14 µm
can pass the lenses.
An acoustic array with 40 MEMS (micro-electro-mechani­
cal system) Microphones was used to measure the noise
emitted by the airfoils. The microphone array is mounted
in the wind tunnel wall (in flow) on the suction side of the
airfoil in a random geometrical arrangement (Fig. 1).
The overall dimension of the array is 2200 x 1100 mm and
it is placed in a distance of about 1300 mm to the airfoil.
The data acquisition is achieved with a 24 bit multichannel
frontend with a simultaneous sampling rate of 48 kHz.
Thermographic Measurements
The turbulence boundary layer analysis with a thermo­
graphic system is based on the heat exchange by convec­
tion, conduction and radiation between the airfoil and the
surrounding flow. Energy exchange by conduction and
radiation can be disregarded in steady state conditions
[2,3]. Because of the enhanced exchange of energy (by
convection) between flow and body in the region of turbu­
lent flow, an increase of the temperature compared to the
region with laminar flow can be detected by a thermo­
graphic measuring system [2]. In trans- und supersonic
flow the exchange of energy is sufficient to generate a
noticeable temperature gradient. For wind turbine airfoils
in subsonic flow either the airfoil or the flow has to be
heated externally. It can be distinguished between an
active (heated airfoil) and a passive (heated flow) opera­
tion mode [3]. The air temperature in the provided wind
tunnel is, due to effects of friction in the fans, higher than
the temperature of the airfoil-surface. Therefore, an exter­
nal heating of the flow is not required.
Knowing the position of the transition between laminar
flow to turbulent boundary layer can be used in the design
of new airfoils [4] and in flow control of the position of the
transition point by airfoil add-ons (e.g. vortex generators)
[4,5]. In addition to the influence related to trailing edge
noise, the location of the transition has a direct effect on
the drag of an airfoil. The turbulent boundary layer located
behind the transition is associated with a higher skin fric­
tion than the laminar boundary layer in front of the transi­
tion [4].
As no airfoil surface pressure measurements were con­
ducted in the tests, only a comparison of the measured
and calculated position of transition to an XFOIL-simulation
is possible. Fig. 2 shows the lift of the used airfoil over the
angle of attack. XFOIL [6] is a very fast computer simula­
tion tool for design and optimization of airfoils. The fast
simulation comes at the expense of a less precise predic­
tion of the aerodynamic characteristic [4]. Compared to
the measurements in the wind tunnel, there is a slight
deviation between the simulation results and the mea­
surements (Fig. 2). Similar to the lift results, transition
prediction models in XFOIL may vary to measured posi­
tions of the transition.
The thermographic images on the suction and the pres­
sure side are used to calculate the position of the turbu­
lent boundary layer transition by an image processing
algorithm. Based on the geometric arrangement of the
thermographic cameras in the wind tunnel and the geom­
etry of the airfoil, the thermographic data is aligned to the
shape of the airfoil (Fig. 3). A subsequent edge detection
combined with information of the temperature gradient at
the point of transition allows determining the chord-wise
position of the transition for each angle of attack. Fig. 4
shows measurement and simulation results with a chord-
Reynolds number of 4 million and angles of attack between
-5° and 15°. On the left side the results for the suction side
and on the right side the results for the pressure side are
shown.
The measured and calculated position of the transition on
the suction side for small angles of attack (in the region of
linear lift) is almost identical to the simulation results.
Near and above CL max there is a significant difference.
Thus, the position of the transition in the region near CL max
is overpredicted by the XFOIL-simulation. Due to a limited
field of view, based on the angle of aperture of the ther­
mography camera, the transition for higher angles of
attack on the pressure side is not detectable. The maxi­
mum visible position in the field of view is marked with the
black stars in Fig. 4b. Apart from the deviating results
above 2° angle of attack, the measurement is close to the
simulation. These results are reproducible and repeatable
for other airfoil segments.
Beside the detection of the turbulent boundary layer tran­
sition, this thermographic method allows the verification
whether the airfoil is free of roughness elements on the
surface or the airfoil is dirty. For adequate pressure mea­
surements in the wind tunnel, the dirty airfoil has to be
cleaned.
DEWI MAGAZIN NO. 43, AUGUST 2013 63
Aeroacoustic Measurements
Microphone arrays for the acoustic measurements enable
a three-dimensional mapping of sound sources in a short
measuring time. Due to the different distances of a sound
source and the specific microphones in the array as well as
the pressure amplitude affected by the distance, the loca­
tion of the sound source can be determined [7,8]. The
noise emission on wind turbine airfoils is caused by the
interaction of upstream atmospheric turbulence with the
leading edge of the airfoil and by the interaction between
a turbulent boundary layer and the trailing edge of the
airfoil (trailing edge noise) [9,10]. Turbulent flow, passing
the trailing edge of an airfoil, is one of the main airfoil self-
noise mechanisms responsible for noise [11]. This trailing
edge noise, caused by the interaction between the turbu­
lent boundary layer and the trailing edge, can be tonal or
broadband [10].
Fig. 5 shows acoustic measurements on an airfoil evaluat­
ed with a standard beamforming algorithm. Measured
frequencies are between 2000  Hz and 10000  Hz. Fig. 5a
shows results for the untreated airfoil. The expected noise
sources are the vortex generators at 25% chord on the top
and on the bottom of the airfoil. On the right side (Fig. 5b)
the same airfoil with a badly applied serration at the trail­
ing edge is shown. The serration causes a vertical noise
source. In normal case serrations are used to reduce trail­
ing edge noise, but a misalignment of the serration can
have the opposite effect.
The used microphone array, mounted in the wind tunnel
wall, is still very sensitive to structure-borne noise and
flow noise. For the detection of trailing edge noise on
unprepared airfoils, an acoustic shielding is required.
Conclusions and Future Investigations
Thermographic and aeroacoustic measurements on airfoils
in a wind tunnel provide additional information concern­
ing turbulent boundary transition and trailing edge noise.
The thermographic method for turbulence boundary layer
analysis can be used to validate XFOIL and CFD simulations
in a wind tunnel test. The position of the transition can be
detected without preparing the airfoil for surface pressure
measurements. In addition flow control devices as vortex
generators or zigzag tapes can be checked regarding the
functionality. Due to the boundary layer on the tunnel
walls, acoustic measurements with a microphone array in
a closed test section are a challenging task. Current results
show the suitability of the microphone array. Due to
structure-borne noise and flow noise, the measurement of
trailing edge noise is not yet satisfactory. The acoustic
shielding between wind tunnel wall and microphones is
one of the next tasks in the project.
Beyond that, future investigations concerning the combi­
nation of both methods are planned. With the develop­
ment of appropriate evaluation-algorithms, the results of
64 DEWI MAGAZIN NO. 43, AUGUST 2013
the two measuring methods could be combined, yielding
space-resolved information about flow states and noise
emissions. Thus, the combined measuring method would
enable an acoustic-aerodynamic optimization of rotor
blades going far beyond the capabilities of current
approaches by simulations.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Deutsche WindGuard
Engineering GmbH in Bremerhaven for providing the
acoustically optimized wind tunnel in the experiments.
The article is based on results of the project MakOR. The
research project is funded by the State of Bremen within
the Applied Environmental Research Program (AUF) and
the European Regional Development Fund EFRE 2007-
2013.
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