The actuator line method for wind turbine modelling applied in a variational multiscale framework

Abstract

The actuator line method is implemented into a residual-based variational multiscale (VMS) fluid modelling framework to simulate airflow around a wind turbine. In the actuator line method, the turbine blades are represented as rotating lines of body force applied to the flow field. The NREL 5MW turbine is simulated first to validate the model for a large scale reference turbine and investigate the effect of model parameters such as the width of the body force projection and the mesh resolution. The wind turbine designed by Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the NREL Phase VI wind turbine are simulated next and results are compared with the corresponding wind tunnel experiments. Velocity deficit and turbulence kinetic energy in the wake region between three and five down-stream diameters show good agreement with experimental data. We conclude with a view towards using this framework in an integrated simulation of a wind farm in complex terrain by simulating a single turbine in an area of complex terrain.