Flow over an isolated hill revealed by multirotor aircraft data

Abstract This paper represents a contribution of the Project “unmanned aerial vehicles to wind assessment in aquatic systems”, a multi-institutional and multi-instrumented experiment carried out to measure, in detail, the characteristics of winds over a large tropical aquatic system and how the flow is modulated by hill, ramp and abrupt roughness changes. It presents results from experiments conducted during november 2016 over a typical hill site that is adequate for installation of wind turbines. During the experiments, both hilltop and upstream wind profile data were obtained using an unmanned rotorcraft, commonly known as a hexacopter. The flow speed at 20 m over the top of hill was found to be increased by a factor of 1.8. The results were compared with an analytical model which makes a careful application of linear theory to real terrain.

摘要 本研究为“水生系统风力评估用无人机”项目的组成部分，该项目为多机构、多仪器协同开展的野外试验，旨在详细刻画大型热带水生系统上空的风场特征，以及丘陵、坡道与粗糙度突变对气流的调制作用。本研究呈现了2016年11月在一处适宜风力发电机组安装的典型丘陵场址开展的试验结果。试验过程中，研究团队借助无人旋翼机（俗称六旋翼飞行器（hexacopter））采集了山顶及上游区域的风廓线数据。经分析，山顶上空20米高度处的气流风速提升了1.8倍。将上述试验结果与针对真实地形严谨应用线性理论构建的解析模型进行了对比分析。