High speed PIV measurements of an adaptive camber airfoil under highly gusty inflow conditions

Studies of the impact of gusty inflow on an adaptive camber airfoil were performed. The adaptive camber airfoil was developed at the TU Darmstadt and uses a mechanically coupled leading and trailing edge for passive load reduction.

In the present study wind tunnel experiments were performed with tailored inflow generated by means of an active grid. The main goal is the investigation of dynamic loads on such a wind turbine blade and the resulting aerodynamics around it. Therefore, temporal highly resolved PIV measurements at the suction side of the airfoil were performed. To link the local measured aerodynamics to global forces, force balances were used.