Here we have investigated the usage of a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) plasma actuator to improve the aerodynamic performance of an offshore 6MW wind turbine. By controlling the aerodynamic load at different blade sections, the overall generated power and the blade loading is improved. The blade is divided to seven segments and the analysis is applied to each segment. To study effects of configuration and location, actuators were installed in a single or tandem configuration, spread between 46% and 56% of the span length, at different chord wise locations. The improved phenomenological model developed by authors were used to simulate the interaction of the electrostatic field, the ionized particles and the fluid flow. Using the aerodynamic coefficients of each section predicted by numerical simulation, the generated power was estimated. We investigated how the location and configuration of the single and tandem actuators improve the generated power up to 95kW. Also, we studied possibility of using collective pitch angles. It showed that with a collective pitch angle of 10 degrees, one may harvest 10.03% or 11.42% more energy at wind speeds of 6 and 10 m/s respectively. Among seven cases studied, actuators closer to the leading edge performed better than others.
Actuator line model has been widely employed in wind turbine simulations. However, the standard actuator line model does not include a model for the turbine nacelle which can significantly impact turbine wake characteristics as shown in the literature. Another disadvantage of the standard actuator line model is that more geometrical features of turbine blades cannot be resolved on a finer mesh. To alleviate these disadvantages of the standard model, we develop a new class of actuator surface models for turbine blades and nacelle to take into account more geometrical details of turbine blades a…
Numerical models of the flow and wakes due to turbines operating within a real-scale offshore wind farm can lead to a prohibitively large computational cost, particularly when considering blade-resolved simulations. With the introduction of turbine parametrizations such as the actuator disk (AD) or the actuator line (AL) models, this problem has been partially addressed, yet the computational cost associated with these simulations remains high. In this work, we present an implementation and validation of an AL model within the mesh-adaptive three-dimensional fluid dynamics solver, Fluidity, un…
The actuator disk model (ADM) continues to be a popular wind turbine representation in large eddy simulations (LES) of large wind farms. Computational restrictions typically limit the number of grid points across the rotor of each actuator disk and require spatial filtering to smoothly distribute the applied force distribution on discrete grid points. At typical grid resolutions, simulations cannot capture all of the vorticity shed behind the disk and subsequently over-predict power by upwards of 10%. To correct these modeling errors, we propose a vortex cylinder model to quantify the shed vor…
Modelling of turbine blade-induced turbulence (BIT) is discussed within the framework of three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) actuator disk computations. We first propose a generic (baseline) BIT model, which is applied only to the actuator disk surface, does not include any model coefficients (other than those used in the original RANS turbulence model) and is expected to be valid in the limiting case where BIT is fully isotropic and in energy equilibrium. The baseline model is then combined with correction functions applied to the region behind the disk to account for the…
In this work the accuracy of the Actuator Line Model (ALM) in Large Eddy Simulations of wind turbine flow is studied under the specific conditions of very coarse spatial resolutions. For finely-resolved conditions, it is known that ALM provides better accuracy compared to the standard Actuator Disk Model (ADM) without rotation. However, we show here that on very coarse resolutions, flow induction occurring at rotor scales can affect the predicted inflow angle and can adversely affect the ALM predictions. We first provide an illustration of coarse LES to reproduce wind tunnel measurements. The …
To bridge the gap between high and low fidelity numerical modeling tools for vertical-axis (or cross-flow) turbines (VATs or CFTs), an actuator line model (ALM) was developed and validated for both a high and a medium solidity vertical-axis turbine at rotor diameter Reynolds numbers $Re_D \sim 10^6$. The ALM is a combination of classical blade element theory and Navier--Stokes based flow models, and in this study both $k$--$ε$ Reynolds-averaged Navier--Stokes (RANS) and Smagorinsky large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence models were tested using the open-source OpenFOAM computational fluid dyna…
Yaw control has proven to be promising in alleviating the wake effects that plague the efficiency of wind farms. In this work, the actuator line modeling (ALM) method is adopted to simulate the flows over two tandem turbines distanced by $3 - 7$ rotor diameters, with the yaw angle of the upstream rotor varying from $γ_1=0^{\circ}$ to $50^{\circ}$. The aim is to provide a comprehensive aerodynamic characterization of a simple wind farm under yaw misalignment. With increasing yaw angle, the power generated by the downstream rotor increases, compensating the power loss in the upstream rotor, and …
Collective wind farm flow control, where wind turbines are operated in an individually suboptimal strategy to benefit the aggregate farm, has demonstrated potential to reduce wake interactions and increase farm energy production. However, existing wake models used for flow control often estimate the thrust and power of yaw misaligned turbines using simplified empirical expressions which require expensive calibration data and do not accurately extrapolate between turbine models. The thrust, wake velocity deficit, wake deflection, and power of a yawed wind turbine depend on its induced velocity.…
Reducing wake losses in wind farms by deflecting the wakes through turbine yawing has been shown to be a feasible wind farm controls approach. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of yawing depends not only on the degree of wake deflection but also on the resulting shape of the wake. In this work, the deflection and morphology of wakes behind a wind turbine operating in yawed conditions are studied using wind tunnel experiments of a wind turbine modeled as a porous disk in a uniform inflow. First, by measuring velocity distributions at various downstream positions and comparing with prior studies, w…
The actuator line model (ALM) is a commonly used method to represent lifting surfaces such as wind turbine blades within Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). In the ALM the lift and drag forces are replaced by an imposed body force which is typically smoothed over several grid points using a Gaussian kernel with some prescribed smoothing width $ε$. To date, the choice of $ε$ has most often been based on numerical considerations related to the grid spacing used in LES. However, especially for finely resolved LES with grid spacings on the order of or smaller than the chord-length of the blade, the best…
The Betz law places a fundamental limit on the amount of power that can be extracted by a wind turbine for a fixed area wind column. This manuscript extends the original Betz Law derivation to a "multi-turbine" approach.
The multi-rotor (MR) wind turbine concept can be used to upscale wind turbines without increasing the rotor diameter, which can be beneficial for transport, manufacture and design of wind turbines blades. The rotor interaction of a MR wind turbine leads to a faster wake recovery compared to an equivalent single-rotor (SR) wind turbine wake. In this article, the benefit of the faster wake recovery of MR wind turbines is quantified using Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations of a 4x4 rectangular MR wind farm, for three different inter wind turbine spacings. The simulations predict an incre…
A good understanding of wind turbine noise propagation is relevant to better measure the impact of turbines on the environment. In this study, we developed numerical simulations to study the impact of a 2D hill on the sound propagation for a turbine in non flat terrain. The simulations employed a propagation model derived from the linearized Euler equations, solved in a moving frame following the wavefront. The wind turbine noise was modeled using a point source approach. The flow structure in the atmospheric boundary layer and the wind turbine wake were obtained from large-eddy simulations. W…
The intentional yaw misalignment of leading, upwind turbines in a wind farm, termed wake steering, has demonstrated potential as a collective control approach for wind farm power maximization. The optimal control strategy, and resulting effect of wake steering on wind farm power production, are in part dictated by the power degradation of the upwind yaw misaligned wind turbines. In the atmospheric boundary layer, the wind speed and direction may vary significantly over the wind turbine rotor area, depending on atmospheric conditions and stability, resulting in freestream turbine power producti…
Recent large eddy simulations have led to improved parameterizations of the effective roughness height of wind farms. This effective roughness height can be used to predict the wind velocity at hub-height as function of the geometric mean of the spanwise and streamwise turbine spacings and the turbine loading factors. Meyers and Meneveau (Wind Energy 15, 305-317 (2012)) used these parameterizations to make predictions for the optimal wind turbine spacing in infinitely large wind farms. They found that for a realistic cost ratio between the turbines and the used land surface the optimal turbine…
We present here a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of Lillgrund offshore wind farm, which is located in the Oresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark. The simulation combines a dynamic representation of wind turbines embedded within a Large-Eddy Simulation CFD solver, and uses hr-adaptive meshing to increase or decrease mesh resolution where required. This allows the resolution of both large scale flow structures around the wind farm, and local flow conditions at individual turbines; consequently, the response of each turbine to local conditions can be modelled, as well as the res…
Wind turbine wakes negatively impact downwind turbines in wind farms reducing their global efficiency. The reduction of wake-turbine interactions by actuating control on yaw angles and induction factors is an active area of research. In this study, the capability of spanwise-periodic wind turbine arrays with tilted rotors to reduce negative turbine-wakes interaction is investigated by means of large-eddy simulations. It is shown that by means of rotor tilt it is possible to replace turbine far wakes with high-speed streaks where the streamwise velocity exceeds the freestream velocity at hub he…
Modern wind farms comprised of horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) require significant land resources to separate each wind turbine from the adjacent turbine wakes. This aerodynamic constraint limits the amount of power that can be extracted from a given wind farm footprint. The resulting inefficiency of HAWT farms is currently compensated by using taller wind turbines to access greater wind resources at high altitudes, but this solution comes at the expense of higher engineering costs and greater visual, acoustic, radar and environmental impacts. We investigated the use of counter-rotating …
This paper solves an approximate form of conservation of mass and momentum for a turbine in a wind farm array. The solution is a fairly simple explicit relationship that predicts the streamwise velocity distribution within a wind farm with an arbitrary layout. As this model is obtained by solving flow governing equations directly for a turbine that is subject to upwind turbine wakes, no ad hoc superposition technique is needed to predict wind farm flows. A suite of large-eddy simulations (LES) of wind farm arrays is used to examine self-similarity as well as validity of the so-called conservat…
As wind energy expands worldwide, the demand of reliable, fast, cost-efficient wind turbine wake models is growing. This is a significant challenge as wind turbines face various inflow conditions, that include turbulence, inhomogeneities/instationarities and upstream wakes. In consequence, an enormous number of engineering models, each one based on different physical concepts, has been proposed. The majority focuses on the far wake where the mean velocity recovers and turbulence decays after it built up. We argue that the most important, or the leading, parameter for wake modeling is the lengt…
Understanding wind turbine wake mixing and recovery is critical for improving the power generation and structural stability of downwind turbines in a wind farm. In the field, where incoming flow and turbine operation are constantly changing, wake recovery can be significantly influenced by dynamic wake modulation, which has not yet been explored. Here we present the first investigation of dynamic wake modulation in the near wake of a utility-scale turbine and quantify its relationship with changing conditions. This investigation is enabled using novel super-large-scale flow visualization with …
The unsteady power generation of a wind turbine translating in the streamwise direction is relevant to floating offshore wind turbines, kite-mounted airborne wind turbines, and other non-traditional wind-energy systems. To study this problem experimentally, measurements of torque, rotor speed, and power were acquired for a horizontal-axis wind turbine actuated in periodic surge motions in a fan-array wind tunnel at the Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). Experiments were conducted at a diameter-based Reynolds number of $Re_D=6.1\times10^5$ and at tip-speed ratios bet…
Vertical-axis wind turbines are great candidates to diversify wind energy technology, but their aerodynamic complexity limits industrial deployment. To improve the efficiency and lifespan of vertical axis wind turbines, we desire data-driven models and control strategies that take into account the timing and duration of subsequent events in the unsteady flow development. Here, we aim to characterise the chain of events that leads to dynamic stall on a vertical-axis wind turbine blade and to quantify the influence of the turbine operation conditions on the duration of the individual flow develo…
A high-order flux reconstruction method coupled with a high-order sliding mesh method is applied to analyze the performance of a ducted wind turbine at a Reynolds number of $1.25\times 10^6$. To investigate the impacts of the duct, axial flow simulations are also performed for the corresponding open-rotor turbine. It is shown that the ducted turbine has higher thrust and power outputs than the open rotor. Vorticity and velocity fields of two configurations are also visualized and analyzed to show the differences. To evaluate the effects of yawed flows, simulations are carried out for both turb…
We present results from large eddy simulations (LES) of extended wind-farms for several turbine configurations with a range of different spanwise and streamwise spacing combinations. The results show that for wind-farms arranged in a staggered configuration with spanwise spacings in the range $\approx[3.5,8]$D, where $D$ is the turbine diameter, the power output in the fully developed regime depends primarily on the geometric mean of the spanwise and streamwise turbine spacings. In contrast, for the aligned configuration the power output in the fully developed regime strongly depends on the st…
With the evolving global energy dynamics, new and innovative ways to integrate renewable energy technologies into residential and commercial complexes are being adopted. Techno-economic models such as NREL-SAM and HOMER are handy for evaluating such integration of renewables. However, the unavailability of libraries for vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and wind speed data limitations have been identified in the two platforms (NREL-SAM and HOMER). Accordingly, this project looks into developing models for evaluating power curve tables for Darrieus turbines and synthesizing wind speed scenario…
The fluid dynamics video considers an array of two NREL 5-MW turbines separated by seven rotor diameters in a neutral atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). The neutral atmospheric boundary-layer flow data were obtained from a precursor ABL simulation using a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) framework within OpenFOAM. The mean wind speed at hub height is 8m/s, and the surface roughness is 0.2m. The actuator line method (ALM) is used to model the wind turbine blades by means of body forces added to the momentum equation. The fluid dynamics video shows the root and tip vortices emanating from the blades f…
The Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are one of the mainstream devices for wind energy utilization in the urban areas. The market's pursuit of high wind energy conversion efficiency promotes the research on improving the wind turbine power coefficient while reducing noise. This paper makes further investigation on the aerodynamics and aeroacoustics of a small VAWT with V-shaped blades and trailing-edge serrations. The feasibility of utilizing the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes SST k-omega turbulence model and the FW-H method is verified against experiments. The studied V-shaped bl…
Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT) are excellent candidates to complement traditional wind turbines and increase the total wind energy capacity. Development of VAWT has been hampered by their low efficiency and structural unreliability, which are related to the occurrence of dynamic stall. Dynamic stall consists of the formation, growth, and shedding of large-scale dynamic stall vortices, followed by massive flow separation. The vortex shedding is detrimental to the turbine's efficiency and causes significant load fluctuations that jeopardise the turbine's structural integrity. We present a co…
Monitoring the flow features over wind turbine blades is a challenging task that has become more and more crucial. This paper is devoted to demonstrate the ability of the e-TellTale sensor to detect the flow separation/reattachment dynamics over wind turbine blades. This sensor is made of a strip with a strain gauge sensor at its base. The velocity field was acquired using TR- PIV measurements over an oscillating thick blade section equipped with an e-TellTale sensor. PIV images were post-processed to detect movements of the strip, which was compared to movements of flow. Results show good agr…
Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are subjected to platform motion induced by wind and wave loads. The oscillatory movement trigger vortex instabilities, modifying the wake structure, influencing the flow reaching downstream wind turbines. In this work, the wake of a FOWT is analysed by means of numerical simulations and comparison with linear stability theory. Two simplified models based on the stability of vortices are developed for all degrees of freedom of turbine motion. In our numerical simulations, the wind turbine blades are modeled as actuator lines and a spectral-element method…
CFD studies have been performed to demonstrate the effects of rotation on large wind turbine blades. The 10 MW blade of the Advanced Aerodynamic Tools for Large Rotors (AVATAR) project was selected in the present investigation. In order to demonstrate the rotational augmentation, lift coefficients of the blade sections were compared with the two-dimensional simulations at consistent inflow conditions. The increase of the lift coefficient was observed at the inboard section of the blade, showing the effect of rotation. A significant delay of separation point as well as a massive reduction of th…
The flows behind a model wind turbine under two turbine operating regimes are investigated using wind tunnel experiments and large-eddy simulations. Measurements from the model wind turbine experiment reveal that the power coefficient and turbine wake are affected by the operating regime. Simulations employing a new class of actuator surface methods which parameterize both the turbine blades and nacelle with and without a nacelle model are carried out for each operating condition to study the influence of the operating regime and nacelle. For simulations with a nacelle model, the mean flow fie…
Wake redirection is a promising approach designed to mitigate turbine-wake interactions which have a negative impact on the performance and lifetime of wind farms. It has recently been found that substantial power gains can be obtained by tilting the rotors of spanwise-periodic wind-turbine arrays. Rotor tilt is associated to the generation of coherent streamwise vortices which deflect wakes towards the ground and, by exploiting the vertical wind shear, replace them with higher-momentum fluid (high-speed streaks). The objective of this work is to evaluate power gains that can be obtained by ti…
In this paper, wake steering is applied to multirotor turbines to determine whether it has the potential to reduce wind plant wake losses. Through application of rotor yaw to multirotor turbines, a new degree of freedom is introduced to wind farm control such that wakes can be expanded, channelled, or redirected to improve inflow conditions for downstream turbines. Five different yaw configurations are investigated (including a baseline case) by employing large-eddy simulations (LES) to generate a detailed representation of the velocity field downwind of a multirotor wind turbine. Two lower-fi…
High-order large-eddy simulations are performed to study the performance and flow field of a ducted wind turbine operating at different tip speed ratios. To evaluate the effects of the duct, simulations with the same tip speed ratios are also performed on the corresponding open-rotor turbine. It is found that the ducted turbine consistently obtains higher power outputs than the open-rotor counterpart, and the duct itself enhances flow turbulence and blade trailing-edge vortices but weakens tip and hub vortices. Flow bifurcation is observed at the largest tip speed ratio and is identified to be…
The flow speed-up generated by windbreaks can be used to increase the power production of wind turbines. However, due to the increased drag imposed by the windbreaks, their use in large wind turbine arrays has been questioned. We use large eddy simulations to show that windbreaks can increase the power production of large wind farms. A crucial finding is that windbreaks in a wind farm should be much lower than for a single turbine case. In fact, the optimal windbreak for an isolated turbine can reduce wind farm performance. The optimal windbreak height in a wind farm namely depends on the righ…
Wind turbine's wake, being convectively unstable, may behave as an amplifier of upstream perturbations and make the downstream turbine experience strong inflow fluctuations. In this work, we investigate the effects of the side-to-side motion of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) on wake dynamics using large-eddy simulation and linear stability analysis (LSA) on the NREL 5MW baseline offshore wind turbine. Simulation results reveal that the turbine motion can lead to wake meandering for motion frequencies with the Strouhal number $St = fD/U_\infty \in (0.2,0.6)$ (where $f$ is the motion fr…
Super-large-scale particle image velocimetry and flow visualization with natural snowfall is used to collect and analyze multiple datasets in the near wake of a 2.5 MW wind turbine. Each dataset captures the full vertical span of the wake from a different perspective. Together, these datasets compose a three-dimensional picture of the near-wake flow, including the effect of the tower and hub and the variation of instantaneous wake expansion in response to changes in turbine operation. A region of high-speed flow is observed directly behind the hub, and a region of low-speed flow appears behind…
We present results from novel field, lab and computer studies, that pave the way towards non-invasive classification of localised surface defects on running wind turbine rotors using infrared thermography (IRT). In particular, we first parametrise the problem from a fluid dynamical point of view using the roughness Reynolds number ($Re_k$) and demonstrate how the parameter regime relevant for modern wind turbines translate to parameter values that are currently feasible in typical wind tunnel and computer experiments. Second, we discuss preparatory wind tunnel and field measurements, that demo…
The power output of wind farms depends strongly on spatial turbine arrangement, and the resulting turbulent interactions with the atmospheric boundary layer. The main goal of this work is to study the effect of turbine layout on the power output for large wind farms approaching a fully-developed regime. For this purpose we employ an experimental setup of a scaled wind farm with one-hundred porous disk models, of which sixty are instrumented with strain gages. Our experiments cover a parametric space of fifty-six different layouts for which the turbine-area-density is constant, focusing on diff…
We present a method to adapt Greenberg's potential flow model for coupled pitching and surging flow such that it can be applied to predict the loads on a vertical-axis wind turbine blade. The model is extended to compute loads on a blade undergoing multi-harmonic oscillations in effective angle of attack and incoming flow velocity by formulating the blade kinematics as a sum of simple harmonic motions. Each of these functions is a multiple of the main turbine rotational frequency, associated with an individual amplitude, as suggested by Greenberg. The results of the adapted model are compared …
The near wake of a small-scale wind turbine is investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experiments at different tip speed ratios ($λ$). The wind turbine model had a nacelle and a tower mimicking real scale wind turbines. The near wake is found to be dominated by multiple coherent structures including the tip vortices, distinct vortex sheddings from the nacelle and tower, and wake meandering. The merging of the tip vortices is found to be strongly dependent on $λ$. A convective length scale ($L_c$) related to the pitch of the helical vortices is defined which is shown to be a better…
To design and optimize arrays of vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for maximal power density and minimal wake losses, a careful consideration of the inherently three-dimensional structure of the wakes of these turbines in real operating conditions is needed. Accordingly, a new volumetric particle-tracking velocimetry method was developed to measure three-dimensional flow fields around full-scale VAWTs in field conditions. Experiments were conducted at the Field Laboratory for Optimized Wind Energy (FLOWE) in Lancaster, CA, using six cameras and artificial snow as tracer particles. Velocity a…
An extended analytical wake model and applications to yawed wind turbines in atmospheric boundary layers with different levels of stratification and veer
This work is dedicated to studying the influence of yaw angle on the wake characteristics of a 2.5 MW utility-scale wind turbine using large-eddy simulations with the turbine's blades and nacelle parameterized as actuator surfaces. Four different yaw angles are simulated, i.e., $γ=0^{\circ},10^{\circ},20^{\circ},30^{\circ}$ for three different tip-speed ratios $λ= 7,8,9$. Similarities are observed for both time-averaged velocity fields and the turbulence statistics of turbine wakes. Specifically, it is found that the temporal average of the wake deflection, the velocity deficit and the transve…
An extended theoretical approach is proposed to predict the average power of wind turbines in a large finite-size wind farm. The approach is based on the two-scale momentum theory proposed recently for the modelling of ideal very large wind farms, but the theory is now generalised by introducing the effect of additional pressure difference induced by the farm between the upstream and downstream sides of the farm, making the approach applicable to real wind farms that are large but not as large as the size of the relevant atmospheric system driving the flow over the farm. To validate the genera…
The infrasound levels due to the blade-tower interaction generated by a wind turbine in the publication by Pilger and Ceranna (JSV, Vol. 388, pp. 188-200, 2017) have to be corrected to be interpreted as sound pressure level. Also, the electrical power of the wind turbine should be corrected for the high wind case to 660 kW. We provide a reanalysis of the measured data with a power spectrum showing levels for the low-frequency signal of the wind turbine about 34 dB below the original work. All measured levels at a distance of 200 m from the wind turbine's infrasound signal are well below the he…
