Numerical Study of Nacelle Wind Speed Characteristics of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine under Time-Varying Flow

Xiaodong Wang, Yunong Liu, Luyao Wang, Lin Ding and Hui Hu
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Xiaodong Wang: Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Yunong Liu: Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Luyao Wang: Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Lin Ding: Key Laboratory of Condition Monitoring and Control for Power Plant Equipment, Ministry of Education, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Hui Hu: Department of Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: Nacelle wind speed transfer function (NTF) is usually used for power prediction and operational control of a horizontal axis wind turbine. Nacelle wind speed exhibits high instability as it is influenced by both incoming flow and near wake of a wind turbine rotor. Enhanced understanding of the nacelle wind speed characteristics is critical for improving the accuracy of NTF. This paper presents Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulation results obtained for a multi-megawatt wind turbine under both stable and dynamic incoming flows. The dynamic inlet wind speed varies in the form of simplified sinusoidal and superposed sinusoidal functions. The simulation results are analyzed in time and frequency domains. For a stable inlet flow, the variation of nacelle wind speed is mainly influenced by the blade rotation. The influence of wake flow shows high frequency characteristics. The results with stable inlet flow show that the reduction of the nacelle wind speed with respect to the inlet wind speed is overestimated for low wind speed condition, and underestimated for high wind speed condition. Under time-varing inflow conditions, for the time scale and fluctuation amplitude subject to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standard, the nacelle wind speed is mainly influenced by the dynamic inflow. The variation of inflow can be recovered by choosing a suitable low pass filter. The work in this paper demonstrates the potential for building accurate NTF based on Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations and signal analysis.

Keywords: wind turbine; nacelle wind speed; nacelle wind speed transfer function; dynamic inflow; numerical simulations (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: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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