Distance to First Airfoil

Wind & Water Airfoils
1

I was wondering whether anyone had any information regarding the radial distance to the first airfoil for a SWT-2.3-101 Wind Turbine. I am trying to garner span-wise variation in power extraction, as such knowing the location of the first airfoil is important to modeling root losses. I have read through both:

Aerodynamic and Performance Measurements of a SWT-2.3-101 Wind Turbine (nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/51649.pdf)
Inflow Characterization and Aerodynamic Measurements on a SWT-2.3-101 Wind Turbine (nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/53666.pdf)

both have been unable to find the information that is needed.

If this information is proprietary or unknown, does anyone with more experience have any idea about what is a general location of where the first airfoil starts as either a percentage of the blade length or just actual distance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

2

Dear James,

The geometry of the SWT-2.3-101 is certainly proprietary. I would venture to say that, in general, the location of the first pure airfoil would occur between 10-20% span. Of course, there is typically a transition region more inboard between the cylindrical root and the first pure airfoil.

Best regards,

3

I appreciate your quick response, I figured it was proprietary but wasn’t entirely sure given the other reports NREL has released with respect to the SWT-2.3 aerodynamic testings.