Disturbing impact of multiple wind turbines on the indicated DVOR bearing

Abstract

Radio navigation aids, like the Doppler Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Radio Range (DVOR), provide their navigation service by specific radiation of electromagnetic waves depending on the direction in space and according to their specific antenna characteristics. Therefore, these navigation aids are reliant on undisturbed wave propagation in their operation range. Certainly, a propagation disturbance can be implicated by the presence of scattering objects like large buildings or wind turbines (WT) in the surrounding area of the DVOR, which potentially leads to deviations of the transmitted navigation content.

In order to comply with the specified flight safety limits, especially respecting WTs, there is a necessity to predict the prospective bearing error due to installations not only of individual WTs but also of additional ones in a present wind farm or repowering projects. Accordingly, this paper is aimed at ascertaining the bearing deviations' dependency on the quantity of WTs in a realistic wind farm close to a DVOR, calculated in space areas of practical relevance.