Wake Interaction of NREL Wind Turbines Using a Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

Wind turbines installed in arrays in a wind farm tend to experience reduced power production and increased fatigue load on the blades which can prematurely wear down turbine hardware. In this paper, the aerodynamic characteristics of a single wind turbine was studied numerically first. Then the aerodynamic impacts of three in-line wind turbines were investigated. Turbine wake simulations were performed on NREL unsteady aerodynamics experiment phase VI two-bladed wind turbines. The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was used to model the wakes behind turbines. The ability of LBM to capture wake evolution and detailed flow characteristics were explored for a single and three in-line turbines. The model results provide an insight on the turbine wake interactions and demonstrate that the LBM can simulate the complexity of the wake interactions efficiently.