Wind Turbine Modeling for Computational Fluid Dynamics: December 2010 - December 2012

With the shortage of fossil fuel and the increasing environmental awareness, wind energy is becoming more and more important. As the market for wind energy grows, wind turbines and wind farms are becoming larger. Current utility-scale turbines extend a significant distance into the atmospheric boundary layer. Therefore, the interaction between the atmospheric boundary layer and the turbines and their wakes needs to be better understood. The turbulent wakes of upstream turbines affect the flow field of the turbines behind them, decreasing power production and increasing mechanical loading. With a better understanding of this type of flow, wind farm developers could plan better-performing, less maintenance-intensive wind farms. Simulating this flow using computational fluid dynamics is one important way to gain a better understanding of wind farm flows. In this study, we compare the performance of actuator disc and actuator line models in producing wind turbine wakes and the wake-turbine interaction between multiple turbines. We also examine parameters that affect the performance of these models, such as grid resolution, the use of a tip-loss correction, and the way in which the turbine force is projected onto the flow field