Blockage effects in a single row of wind turbines

Abstract

Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations are used to assess the magnitude and sign of turbine interaction loss in single-row wind farms with flow perpendicular to the row. Consistent with previous studies, the simulations show that lateral interactions between turbines can lead to a production gain when assuming idealised neutral conditions. These gains are amplified by using over-constraining boundary conditions. When more realistic conditions are simulated, the gains turn to losses, suggesting that losses are more likely to occur in actual single-row wind farms. The study results also indicate that commonly used assumptions in engineering models for blockage effects risk the underprediction of turbine interaction loss.