Experimental study on wake interactions and performance of the turbines with different rotor-diameters in adjacent area of large-scale wind farm

Abstract

Caused by the expansion construction of large-scale wind farm, wind turbines of different rotor-diameters always exist in typical area with abundant wind resources. This paper investigates the wake characteristics of turbines with different rotor-diameters and their wake interactions as well as performance through LiDAR measurement and SCADA data. The experiment wind farm is located in North China with a flat terrain and three different types of wind turbines are installed. Results show that the wake recovery is related to the rotor diameter, the larger of the turbine, the slower of its wake recovery. The wake of downwind turbine is aggravated by the upstream turbine’s wake, reflected in broader wake width, larger velocity deficit and depth. Meanwhile, the upstream wind turbine’s wake that close to the downstream wind turbine can also be affected, reflected in the velocity deficit and the wake width suddenly increases when the wake approaching the downwind turbine. The power loss caused by wake effect increased sharply when wind speed decreases and the wake of a 1.5 MW wind turbine makes a great power loss even after a long distance, thus, the wake effect of large wind turbine should be paid more attentions.