Exercise on Turbulence – MOOC

A. Sathe
DTU Wind Energy

August 27, 2015

Data Analysis
Given Information
An excel data file called as MOOCTurbulenceDataSeries.xls contains the 20 Hz measurements
of the u, v, and w components using a sonic anemometer over a 30-min period. The data is

Høvsøre
6500
UTM 32Northing - 6250000 m

Turbines
North Sea

6000

5500
116 m

fjord
5000
5000 5500 6000 6500 7000
UTM 32 Easting - 441000 m

0 5 10 15
Height above sea [m]

Figure 1: Location of the test site at Høvsøre, Denmark

1
obtained from the measurements of a sonic anemometer mounted on a 116.5 m tall meteoro-
logical mast, located at the Danish National Test Center for Large Wind Turbines at Høvsøre,
Denmark. Figure 1 shows the location of the test center in Denmark (see inset in Fig. 1). The
site is about 1.7 km east from the North Sea at a mean height of 2 m above mean sea level.
The Nissum Fjord lies ≈ 800 m south of the station’s 116.5 m tall met mast. The site also
comprises five turbine stands, which turbine manufacturers rent for the machine’s testing and
research. Besides this, (not shown in Fig. 1) there are five power curve masts, two lighting
towers and a central service building. The eastern sector is characterized by a relatively flat
homogeneous terrain.

Questions
1. Separate the time series into mean and fluctuating parts. Plot the time series of the
fluctuating part of each component.

2. Compute the mean of each component. Is the mean of v and w approximately zero? If
yes, why?

3. Compute the standard deviation of each component. Which component has larger
standard deviation?

4. Decompose the time series of each component using Fourier series, and compute the
spectra. Which turbulence scales are larger, u, v or w?

5. Compute the auto-covariance of the u component and plot it for different time lags.
Compute the integral time scale.

Note: The exact mathematical representation of spectra and auto-covariance is not given
in the slides, but students are encouraged to check some standard textbooks and compute
accordingly