Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2016
Extensive experiments were conducted to study the effect of various parameters on the surface pressure distribution and transition point of an aerofoil section used in a wind turbine blade. In this paper details of the variation of transition point on the aforementioned aerofoil are presented. The aerofoil spanned the wind-tunnel test section and was oscillated sinusoidally in pitch about the quarter chord. The imposed variables of the experiments were free stream velocity, amplitude of motion, mean angle-of-attack, and oscillation frequency.
The spatial-temporal progressions of the leading-edge transition point and the state of the unsteady boundary-layer were measured using eight closely-spaced, hot-film sensors (HFS). The measurements show that:
(i) Reduced frequency has a pronounced effect on the variations of the transition point.
(ii) There exists a hysteresis loop in the dynamic transition location and its shape varies with the reduced frequency and mean angle-of-attack.