Open AccessCFD simulations of the MEXICO rotor
Author(s) -
Bechmann A.,
Sørensen N. N.,
Zahle F.
Publication year - 2011
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.450
Subject(s) - computational fluid dynamics , wake , particle image velocimetry , rotor (electric) , turbine , airfoil , wind tunnel , mechanics , marine engineering , upstream (networking) , aerospace engineering , reynolds averaged navier–stokes equations , engineering , physics , mechanical engineering , turbulence , telecommunications
The wake behind a wind turbine model is investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and results are compared with measurements. The turbine investigated is the three‐bladed test rotor (D = 4.5 m) used in the Model Experiments in Controlled Conditions (MEXICO) wind tunnel experiment. During the MEXICO experiment, particle image velocimetry measurements of the induction upstream and downstream of the rotor were performed for different operating conditions, giving a unique dataset to verify theoretical models and CFD models. The present paper first describes the efforts in reproducing the experimental results using the Reynold‐Averaged Navier‐Stokes method. Second, three‐dimensional airfoil characteristics are extracted that allow simulations with simpler wake models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.