Wind farm turbulence impacts on general aviation airports in Kansas.

Details

• Creators:
  Mulinazzi, Thomas E. ; Zheng, Zhongquan Charlie
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Kansas. Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Turbines
  • General aviation airports
  • Atmospheric turbulence
  • Wakes
  • Wind power generation
  • Environmental impacts
  • Aviation safety
  • Case studies
• Publication/ Report Number:
  K-TRAN: KU-13-6
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Kansas
• Corporate Publisher:
  Kansas. Dept. of Transportation. Bureau of Materials & Research
• Abstract:
  Wind turbines and wind farms have become popular in the State of Kansas. Some general aviation pilots have expressed a concern about the ; turbulence that the spinning blades are creating. If a wind farm is built near an airport, does this affect the operations in and out of that airport? ; Other problems associated with wind farms are their impact on agricultural aviation and their influence on radar detection of aircraft in the ; vicinity of a wind farm. ; This research project has three objectives: ; 1. Determine the amount and pattern of the turbulence from a single wind turbine. ; 2. Determine the amount and pattern of wind turbulence from a wind farm, both in a horizontal direction and in a vertical direction. ; 3. This information will result in recommendations concerning the location of wind farms and their impacts of the safe operation of airports ; and other aviation activities. ; The results of this project support the findings in the literature search that the turbulence from a wind turbine can impact operations at a ; general aviation airport. Two case studies were used to illustrate the impact of turbulence from a wind turbine on a general aviation airport. This ; project analyzed the roll hazard and the crosswind hazard resulting from a wind farm located near a general aviation airport. The wind turbine ; wake model is based on a theoretical helical vortex model and the decay rate is calculated following the aircraft wake decay rate in the ; atmosphere. ; The roll hazard analysis showed that for the Rooks CountyRegional Airport, the potential roll hazard index is in the high range as far out as ; 2.84 miles. For the Pratt Regional Airport, the roll hazard index is in the high range as far out as 1.14 miles. These numbers are based on a gust ; wind of 40 mph that is below the turbine brake wind speed of 55 mph. As the results show, the scenario is different according to the relative ; locations and orientations of the airport and the nearby wind farm. Therefore, the analysis has to be performed for each specific regional airport. ; The crosswind hazard analysis for the Rooks County Regional Airport showed part of the airport in the high range even under the mild wind ; condition at 10 mph. The wind turbine wake increases the crosswind component to more than 12 mph which is considered high risk crosswind ; for small general aviation aircraft. For the Pratt Regional Airport, the crosswind hazard is relatively small under the mild wind condition (10 ; mph). When there is a gust of 40 mph wind, the turbine wake induced crosswind puts the majority of runway areas to high hazard areas at both of ; the airports. ; It is recommended that additional studies should be performed to draw the proper correlation between the hazard index developed in this ; study and the safe operation of aircraft at low airspeeds and at low flight altitudes operating near or at a general aviation airport.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  C1936
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/26908/dot_26908_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.46 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7b00364115286d38739c6a6ff8b039bb9dc5a979d622e5cab94c0280e45583ba