Effect of thrust coefficient on the flow blockage effects in closely-spaced spanwise-infinite turbine arrays

Jessica M I Strickland,Richard J A M Stevens

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1618/6/062069

Abstract

The performance of a wind turbine within an array is not necessarily equivalent to the performance of a free-standing turbine because the presence of the neighboring turbines influences the incoming flow. However, insight into these blockage effects is still lacking. Here, we use large eddy simulations to investigate how the blockage effect depends on the turbine thrust coefficient CT . We consider three main scenarios: a free-standing turbine, a closely-spaced spanwise-infinite row of turbines, and an entire wind farm with a high turbine density. We observe that the power production of turbines in the row increases approximately linearly with when compared to the production of a free-standing turbine. Here, where a is the induction factor. In contrast, the power output of turbines in the first row of a wind farm decreases approximately linearly with CT when compared to the production of turbines in a corresponding, solitary row.

Highlights

Modeling wind farm performance is becoming more important as global energy demands and investments in wind energy grow at an unprecedented rate [1, 2]
Here we examine the impact of the turbine thrust coefficient on the blockage effect
We used large eddy simulations to study the impact of the turbine thrust coefficient on the blockage effect

Summary

Introduction

Modeling wind farm performance is becoming more important as global energy demands and investments in wind energy grow at an unprecedented rate [1, 2]. We use large eddy simulations to better understand the effect of the turbine thrust coefficient on the flow blockage effect and to provide more accurate predictions of its impact on the wind farm performance.

Results

Conclusion