The flow generated by wind turbines in a wind farm can have significant effect in wind and temperature distribution to communities located downstream of the wind farm. In addition, the wake from a turbine may affect the flow of another turbine downstream. Typically the flow distribution in a wind farm is very complex, dependent upon the number and the distribution of the turbines. To understand this complex flow, it is  useful to investigate the flow from a single turbine. The V3V system was employed to measure the flow distribution in the volume behind one turbine.

The turbine was placed in a water tunnel and was driven by the water stream flowing across the blades. A picture of the turbine in the tunnel is displayed above. The measurement volume was 80 by 100 by 120 mm3 and Polycrystalline with a mean diameter of 50 μm was used as seed particles. A 200 mJ Nd:YAG laser was used to provide the volumetric illumination.  Measurements were taken with different speeds
of water stream in the tunnel, driving the turbine at different speeds. A typical plot of the isosurfaces of vorticity magnitude and the velocity vectors is given below. The rotational flow pattern and the tip vortices generated from the turbine are easily observed from the plot. The plot of two streams of the tip vortices generated from the blades is given below.