Towards an automated framework for Aero-Servo-Elastic Large Eddy Simulation of wind turbine wakes

Abstract

During the last two decades, wind turbine wakes have been extensively studied in academia by implementing the Actuator Line method in numerous Large Eddy Simulation solvers tailored for atmospheric flows. However, and while being computationally affordable for ad hoc deep investigations, this approach remains barely used in industry. One of the leading causes is the complexity of the simulation process, which still involves several aspects to be carefully looked at to get valuable results in output. This paper aims to present a workflow that merges and automates the different steps required to conduct aero-servo-elastic Large Eddy Simulations of wind turbines. In particular, a strategy based on an Accurate Conservative Level Set function is used to flag the regions where wakes propagate. This allows to automatically derive refinement zones that cover the wakes at all times. This generic procedure can be seamlessly applied to various farm layouts and inflow conditions. To display the capabilities of the workflow, it is applied to several configurations, including one to seven wind turbines for different inflow conditions. It is observed that lower wind speeds require larger mesh to capture the wake dynamics adequately. Overall, the workflow offers the added advantage of significantly reducing the required human effort while standardizing the process. This is important from an industrial perspective, wherein parametric studies are usually carried out as part of the design process.