Abstract
The characteristics of the wind turbulence intensity that are essential to know before installing a wind turbine at a site were investigated along the coast of Cotonou in Benin. The average speed, direction, roughness length, friction velocity, turbulence intensity and relationship between the roughness and wind turbulence intensity were evaluated as well. Using the estimators derived from a simple isotropic Gaussian model of turbulent wind fluctuations, we proposed modified models for estimating the turbulence intensity of wind components. Wind speed and direction data recorded at 10 m above ground level from 2011 to 2014 during the first Compact of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) in Benin were utilized. The results obtained indicated that the annual average roughness length is evaluated at 1.25×10-4 m, and the annual mean friction velocity is equal to 0.41 m.s-1. Peak values of the turbulence intensity vary from 0.3 to 0.6 except during the months of January, April, July, August and September. The high values obtained could jeopardize the production of wind energy during these months. The correlation between the turbulence intensity and roughness length ranging from 0.75 in January to 0.94 in August revealed that these two parameters are linked by an increasing linear function. Finally, modified formulations of the longitudinal and transversal wind turbulence intensity developed from the van den Hurk and de Bruin model and based on the best-fitting approach were proposed. The error estimators (MAE; RMSE) computed to validate these modified models vary respectively from (0.0099; 0.0141) to (0.0614; 0.0890).
Highlights
Electricity generation from wind turbines has gained momentum over the past two decades [1]
Correlation Test We calculated the error estimators between the turbulence intensity models and data using the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) that measure the average magnitude of errors made by the forecast
We evaluated a quantitative correlation between the turbulence intensity and the roughness using the Pearson correlation test
Summary
Electricity generation from wind turbines has gained momentum over the past two decades [1]. The worldwide cumulative installed wind capacity increased from 23,900 MW in 2001 to 539,581 MW in 2017 with a growth rate of about 2000%, which deserves to be valorized in underdeveloped countries [2, 3] in Benin. This technology can contribute greatly to longterm economic growth of these countries, ensuring energy independence and boosting their local economy [4]. Due to the sudden changes in wind direction and speed, these effects prompt blade fatigue which is the main source of Hagninou Elagnon Venance Donnou et al.: Wind Turbulence Intensity Characteristics at 10m Above
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