Numerical Investigation of Stable Stratification Effects on Wind Resource Assessment in Complex Terrain

Takanori Uchida and Susumu Takakuwa
Additional contact information
Takanori Uchida: Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM), Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-kouen, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
Susumu Takakuwa: Japan Renewable Energy Corporation, Roppongi Hills North Tower 10F, 6-2-31 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032, Japan

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-32

Abstract: In the present study, we perform numerical simulations considering various stable atmospheric conditions for a small-scale simple topography. Based on the obtained simulation results, we visualize the flow field and discuss drastic changes in the flow patterns. A flow pattern similar to the potential flow suddenly appears around an isolated hill as the stability increases, regardless of the inclination angle of the hill. We show that a critical Richardson number clearly exists. Furthermore, the effect of stable stratification on the evaluation of power generation is shown for typical complex terrain. We evaluate the capacity factor (%) of a 2 MW large wind turbine based on one-year virtual mast data and consider the effect of stable stratification. It is shown, in the case of stable stratification, that the capacity factor is 2.775 times greater than that under neutral stratification.

Keywords: stable stratification effects; large eddy simulation; isolated hill; complex terrain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6638/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/24/6638/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:24:p:6638-:d:463013

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().