Predicting the impact of wind turbine noise: general overview and results of the PIBE project

The PIBE project aims to improve wind turbine noise prediction methods and to explore new solutions for noise reduction. This five years project brought together French experts in aeroacoustics, sound propagation, experimental noise characterization and wind engineering, and was structured around three work packages. The first one aimed to study amplitude modulation phenomena and focused particularly the characterization of dynamic stall noise. Specific aerodynamic and acoustic measurements were carried out in a wind tunnel, showing the influence of several stall regimes on noise production. The second work package focused on quantifying the uncertainties of noise prediction methods. It developed an open-access online application (WindTUNE) that quantifies uncertainties on noise prediction of a wind farm, and a parametric and uncertainties calculation tool for the engineering application Code-TYMPAN. This work package also produced an open-access database of a 410 days campaign of meteorological and acoustical measurements around a wind farm. The last work package investigated new noise reduction devices using blades with modified leading and/or trailing edges. The efficiency of the solutions were characterized in a wind tunnel, both acoustically and aerodynamically. The paper presents the main results obtained at the end of the project.