Interaction of Wind Turbine Wakes under Various Atmospheric Conditions

Sang Lee, Peter Vorobieff and Svetlana Poroseva
Additional contact information
Sang Lee: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Peter Vorobieff: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Svetlana Poroseva: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: We present a numerical study of two utility-scale 5-MW turbines separated by seven rotor diameters. The effects of the atmospheric boundary layer flow on the turbine performance were assessed using large-eddy simulations. We found that the surface roughness and the atmospheric stability states had a profound effect on the wake diffusion and the Reynolds stresses. In the upstream turbine case, high surface roughness increased the wind shear, accelerating the decay of the wake deficit and increasing the Reynolds stresses. Similarly, atmospheric instabilities significantly expedited the wake decay and the Reynolds stress increase due to updrafts of the thermal plumes. The turbulence from the upstream boundary layer flow combined with the turbine wake yielded higher Reynolds stresses for the downwind turbine, especially in the streamwise component. For the downstream turbine, diffusion of the wake deficits and the sharp peaks in the Reynolds stresses showed faster decay than the upwind case due to higher levels of turbulence. This provides a physical explanation for how turbine arrays or wind farms can operate more efficiently under unstable atmospheric conditions, as it is based on measurements collected in the field.

Keywords: atmospheric boundary layer; wind turbines; energy capture (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: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/6/1442/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/6/1442/ (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:11:y:2018:i:6:p:1442-:d:150534

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 ().