Open AccessNumerical investigation of wind turbine wake development in directionally sheared inflow
Author(s) -
Bromm Marc,
Vollmer Lukas,
Kühn Martin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
wind energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1099-1824
pISSN - 1095-4244
DOI - 10.1002/we.2010
Subject(s) - wake , inflow , turbine , aerodynamics , wind power , aeroelasticity , marine engineering , mechanics , wind shear , planetary boundary layer , boundary layer , meteorology , environmental science , geology , engineering , aerospace engineering , wind speed , physics , electrical engineering
Abstract Turbines in wind farms are subject to complex mutual aerodynamic interactions, which in detail depend upon the characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer. Our two objectives with this paper were to investigate the impact of directionally sheared inflow on the wake development behind a single wind turbine and to analyse the impact of the wakes on the energy yield and loading of a downstream turbine, which is exposed to partial and full wake conditions. We performed simulations with a framework based on a coupled approach of large‐eddy simulation and an actuator line representation of an aeroelastic turbine model. Our results show that directionally sheared inflow leads to a non‐symmetrical wake development, which transfers to distinct differences in the energy yield and loading of downstream turbines of equal lateral offsets in opposite direction. Therefore, the assumption of wakes being axisymmetrical could lead to notable deviations in the prediction of wake behaviour and their impact on downstream turbines for atmospheric inflow conditions, which include directional shear. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.