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A large number of bat fatalities have been reported in
wind energy facilities in different regions globally. Wind farm operators
are required to monitor bat fatalities by conducting carcass surveys at wind
farms. A previous study implemented the ballistics model to characterize the
carcass fall zone distributions after a bat is struck by turbine bl...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... technically defensible survey is critical to help operators determine whether wind turbines adversely affect listed species and to evaluate project impacts. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the three-blade horizontal axis turbine with associated components including the tower, hub, rotor blades, and rotor-swept area. The vertical distance from the ground to the turbine hub is called the hub height. ...
Context 2
... determine whether wind turbines adversely affect listed species and to evaluate project impacts. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the three-blade horizontal axis turbine with associated components including the tower, hub, rotor blades, and rotor-swept area. The vertical distance from the ground to the turbine hub is called the hub height. In Fig. 1, three rotor blades are denoted in gray and the dotted red periphery indicates the rotor-swept ...
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Citations
... Aerodynamic properties are assumed based on the findings in Prakash and Markfort. 26 ...
Bats colliding with spinning wind turbine blades result in bat mortality. Carcass surveys at individual wind turbines vary from daily to once a week and from large cleared plots to only the road and pad area. A physics‐based model is proposed to guide carcass surveys, for designing curtailment studies to detect treatment fatalities and for improving fatality estimates by accounting for unsearched areas. The model considers the effects of carcass size, weight, and drag, and it accounts for the turbine rotor size and rotation rate to simulate the trajectory of a carcass after it is struck by a wind turbine blade. A carcass parameter is defined as the ratio of drag force to body weight, which accounts for the relative effect of bat biophysical and aerodynamic characteristics. By applying restrictions on carcass survey and turbine yaw data, a limited sample of bat fatalities was obtained, and the analysis revealed that bats fall downwind of wind turbines, indicating wind drift significantly influences carcass fall trajectories. The new ballistics model includes the effect of wind drift on fall trajectory of a carcass. The model was used to investigate the sensitivity of carcass fall trajectories to variability of the input parameters. The tests showed that larger values of the carcass parameter, that is, when drag dominates, such as for small carcasses, resulted in larger downwind drift, whereas large carcasses with smaller carcass parameter values resulted in larger distances within the rotor plane. The relationship of wind speed and RPM was found to influence the carcass downwind distance more compared to the within rotor plane distance. Using carcass survey data, turbine operation data, and wind speed records, for seven bats surveyed the day after colliding with a wind turbine, modelled back‐trajectories were used to identify the likely strike location on the rotor. The model can be improved by validating the modelled trajectories with the recorded bat‐blade strikes in thermal videos. It should be noted that the findings of the present study are based on the bat fatalities that met strict criteria leading to small sample size and hence requires further evaluation for testing the robustness of the model.
Wind turbines cause direct mortality of bats through collision with turbine blades. However, accurate bat fatality estimates are unavailable for many facilities and regions due to lack of physically consistent guidance for surveying bat carcasses. We develop a Monte-Carlo based 3-D ballistics model to address this important gap to guide carcass surveys, help improve fatality estimates by combining it with statistical models and offer post-construction impact assessment guidelines. Monte-Carlo simulations account for variability of environmentally relevant parameters and subsequently the variability of the generated carcass fall zone distributions. The input parameters are bat characteristics, including mass, size, and drag coefficient, wind speed, turbine RPM, yaw, bat flight speed, bat strike angle, and bat strike locations on the rotor. Using turbine SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), bat biometrics data, and carcass drag coefficient range, probability density functions of the input parameters were computed. With the help of carcass survey and SCADA details, bat fatalities were selected, and Monte-Carlo based ballistics model simulations were performed using corresponding values of the input parameters of the ballistics model. The surveyed carcass location for a bat found on the same day was in good agreement with the modelled fall zone distribution, providing a measure of model validation. Next, simulations were conducted for a bat fatality for which the carcass was found four days after collision. It was found that the observed location was within the modeled fall zone distribution showing the model capacity for planning surveys. Further, Monte-Carlo based 3-D ballistics model simulations were performed for the full migration season and the resulting 1-D (radial) and 2-D (surface) histograms were compared with the survey 1-D and 2-D histograms, respectively. The modelled 2-D fall zone distribution hot spot overlaps with surveyed carcass positions indicating the model robustness over a wide range of meteorological conditions and time scales. However, by comparison, the modeled 1-D fall zone distribution was found to be different from the surveyed 1-D fall zone distribution. We hypothesize that uncertainty in bat radial strike location (distribution of bat collisions on turbine blades in radial direction) distribution is primary source of difference between the surveyed and modelled 1-D fall zone distribution. There are no measurements available for this key input parameter. As a next step, the sensitivity of carcass fall zone distributions with respect to bat radial strike location distributions were tested. It was found that the probability density function for bat radial strike location affects the modelled fall zone distributions significantly. There is a need to measure bat radial and angular strike locations which can be used as input in the ballistics modeling framework to improve prediction of carcass fall zone distributions. The proposed model is useful for carcass survey planning, improving survey estimates, designing turbine curtailment studies, and collision risk modeling.
Elbow resistance is an important part of energy consumption in ventilation and air conditioning (VAC) systems. By considering the structural characteristics of bat wings and humpback whale pectoral fins, a simplified leading edge for sawtooth guide vanes is designed. Based on the theory of fluid mechanics, the resistance reduction mechanism of the sawtooth guide vane is analyzed. The numerical calculation results show that proper sawtooth groove parameters for the guide vane can effectively reduce the elbow resistance. Compared with that for a normal guide vane, the maximum resistance can be reduced by approximately 9% with the new design. In addition, we analyze the influence of the sawtooth guide vane on the entropy production of the duct elbow and the relationship between entropy production and the resistance of the duct elbow. Finally, the resistance reduction performance of the sawtooth guide vane is verified through full-scale tests.
Wind energy offers substantial environmental benefits, but wind facilities can negatively impact wildlife, including birds and bats. Researchers and managers have made major efforts to chronicle bird and bat mortality associated with wind facilities, but few studies have examined the patterns and underlying mechanisms of spatial patterns of fatalities at wind facilities. Understanding the horizontal fall distance between a carcass and the nearest turbine pole is important in designing effective search protocols and estimating total mortality. We explored patterns in taxonomic composition and fall distance of bird and bat carcasses at wind facilities in the Northeastern United States using publicly available data and data submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service under scientific collecting and special purpose utility permits for collection and study of migratory birds. Forty-four wind facilities reported 2,039 bird fatalities spanning 128 species and 22 facilities reported 418 bat fatalities spanning five species. Relative to long-distance migratory birds, short-distance migrants were found farther from turbines. Body mass of birds and bats positively influenced fall distance. Turbine size positively influenced fall distance of birds and bats when analyzed collectively and of birds when analyzed separately from bats. This suggests that as turbines increase in size, a greater search radius will be necessary to detect carcasses. Bird and bat fall distance distributions were notably multimodal, but only birds exhibited a high peak near turbine bases, a novel finding we attribute to collisions with turbine poles in addition to blades. This phenomenon varied across bird species, with potential implications for the accuracy of mortality estimates. Although pole collisions for birds is intuitive, this phenomenon has not been formally recognized. This finding may warrant an updated view of turbines as a collision threat to birds because they are a tall structure, and not strictly as a function of their motion.
