Inter-turbine spacing and flow unsteadiness effects on wake-induced blade dynamics

Abstract

Wind turbines operating downstream of others in a farm are routinely exposed to waked inflow, with reduced mean velocity and elevated turbulence driving power deficits and additional structural fatigue. The direct effect of wakes on blade-level structural loading remains under-explored experimentally, owing partly to the sparse spatial coverage of conventional point-based strain sensors. Here, we present a wind-tunnel study of wake-induced blade dynamics using two $1\,\mathrm{m}$-diameter turbine models, in which one blade of a downstream turbine ($WT_2$) is instrumented with distributed Rayleigh-backscattering fibre-optic strain sensors, providing spatially continuous strain measurement across the blade span. By changing the relative position of the upstream turbine ($WT_1$) to the downstream, waked turbine $WT_2$ across the streamwise and spanwise extent, we map power output, spanwise strain, and accumulated representative fatigue relevant loading across the wake profile. Full wake impingement suppresses blade loading through the associated velocity deficit, while partial wake overlap generates the strongest load intermittency and highest relative fatigue relevant loading, despite an intermediate power recovery. A combined performance-to-loading metric shows this partial-wake regime offers the least favourable trade-off between energy yield and structural loading. These results show that minimising partial-wake exposure, not only mean velocity deficits, should be a design consideration for wind-farm layout and turbine spacing.