DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF NWPU NF-3 DIGITAL WIND TUNNEL FOR WIND TURBINE AIRFOILS

Zhao Zhong; Hui Zenghong; Zhang Yong; Sun Zhongguo; Luo Yuming

doi:10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2025-0054

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Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (2) : 616-625. DOI: 10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2025-0054

DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF NWPU NF-3 DIGITAL WIND TUNNEL FOR WIND TURBINE AIRFOILS

Zhao Zhong¹, Hui Zenghong^2,3, Zhang Yong⁴, Sun Zhongguo⁴, Luo Yuming¹

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Abstract

Focusing on the digital trarsformation of wind tunnel tests, in response to the demand for the integration of physical wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamics（CFD） numerical tests, this study designed and developed a digital wind tunnel system based on the NF-3 airfoil wind tunnel at Northwestern Polytechnical University（NWPU）. The system replicates the experimental NF-3 wind tunnel model, simulates the control process of experimental wind speed, and enables automated execution of experiments in a virtual wind tunnel. To achieve automation and operational deployment, the digital wind tunnel system uses customized grid templates for the automatic generation of both background and model grids. These grids are assembled using overset grid technology, and low-speed precondition techniques are employed to accelerate the convergence of the compressible flow solver. This paper firstly introduces the basic component sections and the control strategy of the physical wind tunnel. Subsequently, it elaborates on the design of the digital wind tunnel system, including the automatic generation of airfoil grid, automated assembly of wind tunnel and airfoil grids, flow solver methodologies, and virtual control strategies for digital wind tunnel. Finally, this research conducts a virtual experiment in the digital wind tunnel utilizing the standard wind turbine air-foil DU91-W2-250, and compared with traditional CFD simulated results. The results demonstrate that the system can effectively support digital wind tunnel experiments, capturing spanwise separated flow region variations that are absent in conventional quasi-2D simulations and the results align better with physical experiments.

Key words

wind tunnel / airfoil / wind turbines / digital wind tunnel / PHengLEI / computational fluid dynamics

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Zhao Zhong, Hui Zenghong, Zhang Yong, Sun Zhongguo, Luo Yuming. DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF NWPU NF-3 DIGITAL WIND TUNNEL FOR WIND TURBINE AIRFOILS[J]. Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica. 2026, 47(2): 616-625 https://doi.org/10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2025-0054

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