The effect of the boundary layer on the wake of a horizontal axis wind turbine

Nima Sedaghatizadeh, Maziar Arjomandi, Richard Kelso, Benjamin Cazzolato and Mergen H. Ghayesh

Energy, 2019, vol. 182, issue C, 1202-1221

Abstract: This paper analyses the effect of a mean shear similar to an atmospheric boundary layer on the wake of a wind turbine by means of Large Eddy Simulation. More specifically, a comparison is made between the wake in the presence of a smooth boundary layer and that in the absence of a boundary layer (i.e., an unconfined uniform incoming flow). The numerical simulations show that the presence of a smooth boundary layer lowers the power output, however, the rings of tip vortices in the presence of a power-law incoming flow are more stable than for a uniform incoming flow. More importantly, the length of the wake region for the case with the smooth boundary layer is about 12D, which is much shorter than for a uniform incoming flow (namely 20D). Strong downwash, observed at this distance in the presence of a smooth boundary layer, results in a higher velocity magnitude and lower turbulence in the far wake of the wind turbine when compared with a uniform flow. A mechanism explaining these observations is also proposed. This new knowledge may result in denser wind farms, compared with wind farms established on smoother surfaces.

Keywords: Boundary layer; Large eddy simulation (LES); Wind turbine wake; Horizontal axis wind turbine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219311971
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:energy:v:182:y:2019:i:c:p:1202-1221

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.06.066

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().