Blade aerodynamical station sensor

A blade is divided into a number of Blade aerodynamical station, where aerodynamic properties are evaluated. The number of blade aerodynamical stations and their locations is defined in the Blade shape file

The Blade aerodynamical station sensor enables to track how the different output at the Blade aerodynamical station evolve in time. It can be opened by right-clicking on a blade aerodynamical station and toggling the sensor on, as shown in the following picture:



The outputs of the Blade aerodynamical station sensor are the same as the Blade [Span] sensor, but their evolution in time is given, rather than accross the blade.



The Blade aerodynamical station sensor has the following fields, computed with the BEM algorithm:

FieldUnitDescription
Angle of attackdegThe angle bewteen the relative wind and the chordline
Cd-Drag coefficient
Cl-Lift coefficient
Cm-Moment coefficient
Cl/Cd-Ratio of lift over drag coefficients
Local wind speedm.s-1Wind speed at the station in the horizontal plane. Note that this is only the magnitude of the wind at the blade aerodynamical stations: it does not include the effects of tilt, yaw, cone angles or the deflections of the blade
Relative velocitym.s-1Magnitude of the sum of the wind velocity, rotational velocity and induced velocity
Reynolds number-Reynolds number at the station, calculated with the chordlength, the relative velocity and the kinematic viscosity as defined in the Environment part
Mach number-Mach number at the station, calculated as the ratio between the Relative velocity and the speed of sounds (tajen as 343 m.s-1)
Axial induction factor-as calculated with the BEM method
Tangential induction factor-as calculated with the BEM method
Axial Induced velocity-Induced velocity in the direction of the incoming wind, as calculated with the BEM method
Tangential Induced velocity-Induced velocity in the rotational direction of the blade aerodynamical station, as calculated with the BEM method
Lift force, distributedN.m-1Aerodynamic force in the direction perpendicular to the incoming wind
Drag force, distributedN.m-1Aerodynamic force in the direction of the incoming wind
Thrust forceN.m-1Aerodynamic force in the main shaft direction divided by the element length (see Section 4 in Steady BEM)
Thrust force, normalized-Thrust force divided by ρ⋅U2⋅R, where ρ is the air density, U is the wind speed at the hub (mean wind speed for turbulent wind) and R is the rotor radius. 
Torque forceN.m-1Aerodynamic force in the direction of rotation of the blade aerodynamical station (see Section 4 in Steady BEM)
Torque force, normalized-Torque force divided by ρ⋅U2⋅R, where ρ is the air density, U is the wind speed at the hub (mean wind speed for turbulent wind) and R is the rotor radius
Steady BEM iterations-The number of iterations used in the Steady BEM algorithm. For Unsteady BEM (which is the default and set by in the Aerodynamics->Advanced->BEM mode parameter) only the initial (first) solution is Steady and thus uses iterations. Thus, during an Unsteady BEM simulation, the values will not change.
Deflection (out-of-plane)mOut-of-plane displacement of the blade aerodynamical station.
Deflection (in-plane)mIn-plane isplacement of the blade aerodynamical station.
Moment (magnitude)NmMagnitude of the bending moment