Numerical investigation of the effect of towers and nacelles on the near wake of a horizontal-axis wind turbine model

Xiaocheng Zhu, Chong Sun, Hua Ouyang and Zhaohui Du

Energy, 2022, vol. 238, issue PA

Abstract: Near wake flow has a great effect on the technology of horizontal-axis wind turbines. In this paper, the effect of the nacelle and tower on the near wake of a small-scale horizontal-axis wind turbine is studied by a numerical method. A large eddy simulation is used to obtain the time-varying wake flow. There are tip vortices, hub vortices, and blade and tower shedding vortices active in the near wake. Dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) is employed to analyse the features of these unsteady vorticities in both an absolute frame and a frame static relative to the rotor. The DMD results in the absolute frame illustrate the downstream motion of the tip vortices. In the relative frame, the results indicate that the disturbances distort the helical vortex filament and finally lead to a breakdown of the tip vortices in the case without a nacelle and tower. However, considering the effect of the nacelle and tower, the shedding vortices of the nacelle and tower directly break the tip vortices. The interaction between the tip vortices and the tower shedding vortices not only dominates the breakdown of the tip vortices but also promotes the instability of the tip vortices. This condition leads to an earlier wake recovery and influences the energy extraction and fatigue loads of the downstream turbines.

Keywords: Wind turbine; Nacelle and tower; Near wake; Tip vortex; DMD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:238:y:2022:i:pa:s0360544221020302

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.121782

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