Dynamic stall and aerodynamic damping

Riso has developed a dynamic stall model that is used to analyze and reproduce open air blade section measurements as well as wind tunnel measurements. The dynamic stall model takes variations in both angle of attack and flow velocity into account. The paper gives a brief description of the dynamic stall model and presents results from analyses of dynamic stall measurements for a variety of experiments with different airfoils in wind tunnel and on operating rotors. The wind tunnel experiments comprises pitching as well as plunging motion of the airfoils. The dynamic stall model is applied for derivation of aerodynamic damping characteristics for cyclic motion of the airfoils in flapwise and edgewise direction combined with pitching. The investigation reveals that the airfoil dynamic stall characteristics depend on the airfoil shape, and the type of motion (pitch, plunge). The aerodynamic damping characteristics, and thus the sensitivity to stall induced vibrations, depend highly on the relative motion of the airfoil in flapwise and edgewise direction, and on a possibly coupled pitch variation, which is determined by the structural characteristics of the blade.