Time-Averaged Wind Turbine Wake Flow Field Prediction Using Autoencoder Convolutional Neural Networks

Zexia Zhang, Christian Santoni, Thomas Herges, Fotis Sotiropoulos and Ali Khosronejad
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Zexia Zhang: Department of Civil Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
Christian Santoni: Department of Civil Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA
Thomas Herges: Wind Energy Technologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
Fotis Sotiropoulos: Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering Department, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Ali Khosronejad: Department of Civil Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA

Energies, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: A convolutional neural network (CNN) autoencoder model has been developed to generate 3D realizations of time-averaged velocity in the wake of the wind turbines at the Sandia National Laboratories Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility. Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the SWiFT site are conducted using an actuator surface model to simulate the turbine structures to produce training and validation datasets of the CNN. The simulations are validated using the SpinnerLidar measurements of turbine wakes at the SWiFT site and the instantaneous and time-averaged velocity fields from the training LES are used to train the CNN. The trained CNN is then applied to predict 3D realizations of time-averaged velocity in the wake of the SWiFT turbines under flow conditions different than those for which the CNN was trained. LES results for the validation cases are used to evaluate the performance of the CNN predictions. Comparing the validation LES results and CNN predictions, we show that the developed CNN autoencoder model holds great potential for predicting time-averaged flow fields and the power production of wind turbines while being several orders of magnitude computationally more efficient than LES.

Keywords: convolutional neural network; wind turbine; wake flow predictions; large-eddy simulation (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: 2021
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