Field Test Results from the Sandia SMART Rotor

Abstract

*† ‡ Sandia National Laboratories has concluded field testing of its wind turbine rotor equipped with trailing-edge flaps. The blade design, fabrication, and integration which have been described in previous papers are briefly reviewed and then a portion of the data is presented and analyzed. Time delays observed in the time-averaged response to stepwise flap motions are consistent with the expected time scales of the structural and aerodynamic phenomena involved. Control authority of the flaps is clearly seen in the blade strain data and in hub-mounted video of the blade tip movement.