Aerodynamic Interaction Research Articles

Stochastic estimation of wake-induced loads in wind farms using conformalized graph neural networks

In the evolving landscape of sustainable energy, wind power has become a cornerstone in the transition towards renewable energy sources. With significant advancements in turbine technology and simulation methods, wind farms are now a cost-effective alternative to traditional power plants. Nevertheless, optimizing the performance and lifespan of wind turbines remains challenging, especially when it comes to predicting and managing the cumulative load on turbine structures. Wake effects, which result from the complex aerodynamic interplay between turbines, reduce energy efficiency and increase mechanical stress on turbine components. A precise assessment of wake-induced loads is therefore vital for estimating the Remaining Useful Lifetime (RUL) of turbines. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel approach using Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) in combination with Conformal Predictors to model wind farms and evaluate wake-induced loads while estimating uncertainty. GNNs are particularly adept at capturing the complex interactions in a wind farm due to their ability to model graph-structured data. This enables a more accurate representation of the aerodynamic interactions between turbines. Alongside the GNN framework, we employ Conformal Predictors for uncertainty estimation. Conformal Predictors provide statistically valid prediction sets based on past data and minimal assumptions, allowing us to estimate uncertainty bounds with improved confidence. The fusion of GNNs with Conformal Predictors offers a robust framework for predicting turbine loads, while reliably quantifying the uncertainty associated with these predictions.

Implementation and Linearization of a Coupled Panel and Vortex Particle Method in State-Space Form

This paper describes the implementation and linearization of a coupled panel and vortex particle method in a state-variable form. More specifically, the coupled panel and vortex particle dynamics are formulated as a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations in first-order form to be self-contained and inherently linearizable. Linearization of this coupled panel and vortex particle method is demonstrated via finite differencing and a novel analytical linearization technique to yield a linear time-invariant representation. The code is implemented in MATLAB® and validated against an open-source aerodynamic solver for a fixed wing in both stationary and unsteady conditions. The linearized models are verified against the nonlinear dynamics both in the time and frequency domains. Linearized models accurately represent the wake dynamics about the equilibrium condition for moderate amplitude inputs and for input frequencies covering the typical frequency range of flight dynamics and flight controls, i.e., 0.3–30 rad/s. Analytical linearization is shown to abate the cost of linearization over perturbation methods by O(n2), where n is the total number of states of the system. Linearized models of the coupled panel and vortex particle dynamics have applications in the flight dynamics of both fixed- and rotary-wing vehicles, where these dynamics can be used to augment the rigid-body dynamics. The coupled rigid-body and wake dynamics can be leveraged to assess the stability, response characteristics, and handling qualities of vehicles experiencing aerodynamic interactions between rotors, wings, and/or obstacles.

Анализ воздействия воздушных обтекателей на аэродинамические характеристики токоприемника при увеличенных скоростях движения

Objective: investigation of the aerodynamic interaction of the airflow and the pantograph, taking into account the uneven distribution of pressure on the side edges of the fairings. Methods: the research was conducted based on a theoretical approach that defines the methods of air mass mechanics using mathematical modeling on a computer with the use of software products that include tools for calculating hydrodynamics based on the method of CFD analysis in the Flow Simulation module of the SolidWorks software. Results: a solid-state model of the current collector with integrated air deflectors has been developed, which takes into account the interaction complex in the system “moving structure — deflector — current collector — nodes and elements of the contact suspension” in the context of aerodynamic resistance influence. Practical importance: an innovative system has been developed to optimize the aerodynamic characteristics of the current collector during its motion in the air environment, an air deflector that contributes to reducing the negative impact of aerodynamic resistance, reducing the turbulence of air masses and improving the efficiency of current collection.

Experimental investigation of wing-propeller aerodynamic interaction in eVTOL configurations

The present study is aimed at the experimental investigation of the effects of wing-propeller aerodynamic interaction in a boom-mounted configuration typically used in eVTOL aircraft. The investigation was focused on the repercussions on wing and propeller performance coming from the variation of angle of attack, advance ratio and blades sense of rotation. Moreover, particular attention was devoted to the evaluation of the effect of the propeller's longitudinal offset. Results of a comprehensive wind tunnel campaign performed on a propeller-mounted wing scaled model confirmed the advantageous effects of an inboard-up rotating propeller on lift generation and drag reduction, while outlined the opposite sensitivity of wing and propeller performances when exposed to a non-zero angle of attack. Propeller's longitudinal offset instead led to slight alterations on wing and propeller aerodynamic performance, while a noteworthy sensitivity on the mounting setup was perceived by propeller aerodynamic performance. Moreover, PIV measurements allowed to evaluate quantitatively the effects of the investigated parameters on propeller slipstream behaviour and blade tip vortices pattern.

Influence of unsteady stage-interaction on loss generation in regulated two-stage radial turbines at pulsating conditions

Regulated multi-stage turbocharging is a key technology to achieve energy conservation and CO2 emission reduction in internal combustion engine with carbon-free fuel. The understanding of performance of the turbocharging system at the engine conditions is essential for the optimization of engine performance. This paper studies unsteady aerodynamic interaction in regulated two-stage turbocharger turbines at pulsating conditions produced by a heavy-duty diesel engine. Results show that the performance of high-pressure turbine (HPT) is highly sensitive to the unsteady stage-interaction, which is profoundly different from that of the low-pressure turbine (LPT). Specifically, when the bypass valve is opened, the cycle-average efficiency of the HPT declines significantly up to 10.8 % compared with that of closed valve. On the other hand, LPT is slightly influenced by the valve state, and the cycle-average efficiency drops by about 0.2 % when the valve is open. The entropy generation method is used to analyze the unsteady loss in HPT and LPT to unveil the mechanism of the unsteady interaction. Detailed flow analysis shows that the swirling flow result in the evident increase of entropy generation in the HPT and LPT volute. Meanwhile, tip leakage loss and incidence loss of HPT is enhanced by unsteady stage interaction.

Investigation of the effect of free-stream turbulence on paired vertical-axis wind turbines using wind tunnel testing and an actuator-line model

The aerodynamic interaction of vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) in paired configurations can be advantageous in wind farms. However, these turbines operate in the atmospheric boundary layer which is characterised by high turbulence and may also face high-turbulence levels associated with downstream wakes. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to explore the impact of turbulence intensity on the efficiency of paired VAWTs, employing a combination of wind tunnel experiments and an actuator-line model (ALM) integrated in a URANS-based OpenFOAM solver. The present ALM employs aerodynamic coefficients derived from experimental dynamic measurements conducted on a pitching aerofoil. The wind tunnel tests suggest that paired VAWTs operating in turbulent inflow can experience advantages arising from both the mutual aerodynamic interaction between them and the effect of turbulence on the aerodynamic conditions on their aerofoils. Additionally, the ALM sheds light on the mechanisms that contribute to the enhanced power output of isolated and paired VAWTs in turbulent inflow conditions.

Enhanced Wind Farm Maintenance Scheduling Including Wake Effects

With the expansion and dissemination of offshore wind farms, the costs associated with asset maintenance and operation become ever more relevant. Among maintenance activities, preventive interventions represent a significant share of the costs and, as opposed to corrective interventions, may be calendarized according to the farm operator’s strategy. In an offshore wind farm there is often aerodynamic interaction between different machines, namely as a given upstream turbine extracts energy from the wind, it will necessarily reduce the energy available for a turbine that is downstream in the farm. This is broadly referred to as wake effects. The relative proximity of turbines within a farm means such an interaction results in lower energy yield for downstream turbines. Maintenance activities require the shutdown of the turbine, hence the turbine under maintenance effectively produces no wake effect. It follows that, depending on weather conditions, the sequence of wind turbines to be deactivated for large preventive maintenance campaigns may impact the total energy production of an offshore wind farm, especially when the wind direction is considered. The present study investigates the potential of incorporating wake effects in the scheduling of offshore wind farm maintenance activities, considering a reference farm layout and using historical climate data for a real offshore site. Different maintenance scenarios are considered, including distinct maintenance vessels and different intervention criteria. Results show there is a small but relevant potential gain in energy yield when the maintenance scheduling is determined including wake effects, with annual energy production increase of up to 0.18% for the parametric values considered.

Aerodynamic interaction characteristics analysis of intermeshing-rotor fuselage in hover

Abstract To study the interference characteristics of the intermeshing-rotor fuselage, a numerical simulation method for the flow field of a crossed twin-rotor helicopter in a hovering state is established based on the lattice Boltzmann method. The effectiveness of the proposed numerical simulation method is first verified by the ROBIN helicopter rotor/fuselage interference example. Then, taking the simplified JZ-60 rotor and S-97 helicopter fuselage as the research objects, the aerodynamic interference characteristics of the intermeshing rotor and the fuselage are investigated, and the aerodynamic interference law between the two under the hovering state is obtained. The results show that the intermeshing rotor has periodic tension fluctuation, and the fuselage interference leads to about a 4% increase in the total tension of the rotor. The maximum hovering efficiency increases by about 5%, and the larger the tension coefficient is, the larger the fuselage gains on the hovering efficiency is. The fuselage generates periodic negative lift and lateral force under the influence of the rotor. The hovering efficiency gains of the rotor mainly originate from the increases of the blade lift coefficients in the vicinity of the azimuth angles of 0° and 180°. The rotor is in the range of 0.5° and 180°, which has the strongest interference effect on the fuselage near 0.6 R and -0.7 R.

Gap in drop collision rate between diffusive and inertial regimes explains the stability of fogs and non-precipitating clouds

Rain drops form in clouds by collision of submillimetric droplets falling under gravity: larger drops fall faster than smaller ones and collect them on their path. The puzzling stability of fogs and non-precipitating warm clouds with respect to this avalanche mechanism has been a longstanding problem. How can droplets of diameter around 10 $\mathrm {\mu }$ m have a low collision probability, inhibiting the cascade towards larger and larger drops? Here we review the dynamical mechanisms that have been proposed in the literature and quantitatively investigate the frequency of drop collisions induced by Brownian diffusion, electrostatics and gravity, using an open-source Monte Carlo code taking all of them into account. Inertia dominates over aerodynamic forces for large drops, when the Stokes number is larger than $1$ . Thermal diffusion dominates over aerodynamic forces for small drops, when the Péclet number is smaller than $1$ . We show that there exists a range of size (typically 3–30 $\mathrm {\mu }$ m for water drops in air) where neither inertia nor Brownian diffusion are significant, leading to a gap in the collision rate. The effect is particularly important, due to the lubrication film forming between the drops immediately before collision, and secondarily to the long-range aerodynamic interaction. Two different mechanisms regularise the divergence of the lubrication force at vanishing separation: the transition to a non-continuum regime in the lubrication film, when the separation is comparable to the mean free path of air, and the induction of a flow inside the drops due to shear at their surfaces. In the gap between inertia-dominated and diffusion-dominated regimes, dipole–dipole electrostatic interactions becomes the major effect controlling the efficiency of drop collisions.

Aerodynamic interactions of blunt bodies free-flying in hypersonic flow

This paper takes a new look at how the aerodynamic interactions of multiple bodies in high-speed flow affect their motion behaviors. The influence of the body shape and orientation on aerodynamic and stability behavior in the case of shock–shock and wake–shock interactions is the focus of this publication. Experiments were performed in the hypersonic wind tunnel H2K at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne. Free-flight tests with tandem arrangements of spheres and cubes were performed with a synchronized dropping of both objects at various initial conditions of relative streamwise and vertical distance as well as pitch angle. A high-speed stereo-tracking captured the model motions during free-flight, and high-speed schlieren videography provided documentation of the flow topology. Based on the measured 6-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) motion data, aerodynamic coefficients were determined. As a result, the final lateral velocity of trailing cubes is found to be many times greater than that of spheres regarding shock-wave surfing. For rotating cubes, the results showed that stable shock-wave surfing can become possible over an increasingly wide range of initial positions. This study has identified that the trailing drag coefficient of two axially aligned objects varies strongly with their relative streamwise distance. Furthermore, it was shown that the wake is a region of stability for downstream objects.Graphical abstract

Theory of the momentum source method for synthetic turbulence

The interaction between turbulence and blade leading edges is known to have a significant impact on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of propellers. In addition to directly simulating turbulence, synthetic turbulence, such as the momentum source method, has been developed as a popular method for studying this interaction process in computational fluid dynamics and computational aeroacoustics. However, it is found that for non-periodic disturbances, although the induced velocity field is divergence-free, spurious noise may be generated in the source region and contaminate simulation results. To address this issue, the present work proposes adding a correction term so that the divergence-free condition is satisfied globally and the unwanted acoustic waves are suppressed, as an extension to our previous work for time-periodic gusts [H. Jiang, Phys. Fluids 35, 096115 (2023)]. The strength of the proposed approach lies in its simplicity, flexibility, and generality. First, it derives explicit source terms, which are straightforward for numerical implementations, to generate unsteady flow fluctuations. Second, the sources can be added inside the computational domain, saving computational costs for turbulence convection and being compatible with most existing boundary conditions. Third, the proposed method can obtain analytical expressions for the needed momentum source of the Navier–Stokes equation subject to any desired isotropic or anisotropic divergence-free turbulence fields. The method has been verified by examples of synthesizing harmonic gusts, Gaussian eddies, and random turbulence. The synthetic velocity results characterized by different spectral components are directly compared to target velocity fields, verifying the proposed approach and showing its capability. Parameters that influence the distribution of added sources are systematically investigated to identify an optimal combination for different scenarios. Finally, the model is employed to evaluate the aerodynamic interaction between an incoming turbulence and a thin airfoil. The obtained results exhibit good correspondence with analytical solutions.

Numerical investigation of aerodynamic interactions for the coaxial rotor system in low-speed forward flight

This study is conducted to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a coaxial rotor in low-speed forward flight using a high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. Numerical simulations are performed on the coaxial rotor and its isolated upper and lower rotors at two small advance ratios, 0.12 and 0.24. Interaction events in the flowfield, especially blade-vortex-interaction (BVI), are studied in detail. As the forward speed increases, the airload distributions become concentrated on the front part of the disk. Fluctuations in the loading indicate self-BVIs within each rotor, and blade-crossover events and rotor-to-rotor BVIs between the coaxial upper and lower rotors. Principal BVI events are identified in the well-captured wake structures by the 8th-order TENO reconstruction scheme. Self-BVIs on all rotors reduce in strength as the forward speed increases, while rotor-to-rotor BVIs on the coaxial lower rotor increase in strength with the increasing forward speed. In the coaxial configuration, the wake of the upper rotor is induced to move backwards and downwards due to the exertion of the lower rotor wake. The wake of the coaxial lower rotor features the most complex flow nature among all rotors. At both advance ratios, the coaxial lower rotor experiences a parallel rotor-to-rotor BVI, causing highly impulsive loading fluctuations along the blade span.

High-fidelity aero-acoustic evaluations of a heavy-lift eVTOL in hover

Electric Vertical Take-off Landing (eVTOL) vehicles can transform aviation, but the unconventional aircraft development currently requires an extensive knowledge base. This paper presents a high-fidelity aerodynamic and acoustic evaluation of a heavy-lift multi-rotor eVTOL design in hover. The design, known as Skybus, has an MTOW of 14,000 kg, and six tiltable rotors attached at the tip of three sets of tandem wings with flaps. High-fidelity scale-adaptive CFD simulations of the full-scale Skybus vehicle in hover, with three design variations, were conducted using the HMB3 framework. The aerodynamic performance and interactions were analysed in detail. The baseline airframe caused a blockage force of about 13% of the MTOW, and the compact hovering rotors induced a sinusoidal single-blade loading variation, blended with small local interactions. The near-field acoustics were then directly extracted from the high-fidelity CFD results, and far-field acoustic propagation was computed using the acoustic analogy, following reference acoustic measurements for eVTOLs proposed by EASA. Different aerodynamic interactions and propeller acoustic characteristics showed strong impacts on the vehicle acoustics. The EPNL metric was also computed and analysed assuming various hover duration, and restrictions on maximum EPNL and hover duration are recommended for future rotorcraft hover noise certification. These novel results provide valuable guidance for eVTOL acoustic design, infrastructure planning, and policy-making.

Aerodynamic interaction between galloping instability and vortices in corner-cut rectangular cylinders

Studies on bluff-body aerodynamics have emphasized that galloping instability is strongly associated with the Kármán vortex. This study discusses the aerodynamic interactions between the galloping instability and Kármán and motion-induced vortices, analyzes the effects of these vortices on vortex-induced vibration and galloping, and investigates the stabilizing effects of various corner cuts on a rectangular cylinder. Wind tunnel tests were performed on a rectangular cylinder with a side ratio of 1.5 under a smooth flow for seven different corner shapes. The rectangular cylinder with cut corners significantly reduced both the aerodynamic force coefficients and the Kármán vortex shedding intensity. Furthermore, spring-supported free vibration tests indicated that the onset reduced wind velocities were high in the response amplitudes of all corner-cut sections that were analyzed despite the significantly low onset reduced wind velocities of the Kármán vortex-induced vibration, which were denoted as the reciprocal of the Strouhal number and closely associated with the onset of galloping. This was attributed to the motion-induced vortex dominating the vibration when the Kármán vortex shedding intensity was reduced. Therefore, this study clarified one of the factors that affected the onset-reduced wind velocity of galloping.

Film cooling effect of upstream jump coolant on turbine endwall with combustor-turbine interface misalignment

The investigation of jump cooling performance on turbine endwall independently causes its actual cooling effectiveness to deviate from the design values. In this paper, the endwall jump cooling structure with combustor-turbine interface cavity and combustor liners is modeled. Taking the realistic combustor-turbine interface features into account, the effect of jump coolant on turbine endwall film cooling and heat transfer characteristics is numerically studied. Under different endwall misalignment modes, the aerodynamic interaction mechanisms of realistic combustor outflow profile, jump coolant jet and cascade secondary flows at turbine endwall region are revealed. The modification effects of combustor-turbine interface features on jump cooling of the endwall are investigated. The results show that the combustor outflow severely ingests into the combustor-turbine interface cavity after flowing across several steps. Two branches of cavity vortex are subsequently generated in the middle-pitch region of cascade to affect the jump coolant jet. At low coolant blowing ratio, the attachment and separation sides of cavity vortex individually result in high and low cooling regions, while the horseshoe vortex leads to a large wedge-shaped cooling region. At z/Cax < 0, the backward step leads to a higher cooling effectiveness than forward step by 0.2. The jump coolant only leads to phantom cooling effect on downstream part of the vane suction side surface. The net heat flux reduction (NHFR) between two cavity vortexes and at pressure side junction are individually 0<NHFR<0.2 and −0.2<NHFR < −0.1. At high blowing ratio, the jump coolant can cover the pressure side junction with the highest cooling effectiveness of 0.5. The jump coolant can flow across the horseshoe vortex and directly upwash the vane surface. The weak protection regions between two cavity vortexes and near the attachment line of the pressure side horseshoe vortex enlarges. Compared with the forward step, the backward step achieves a lower NHFR by up to 0.1 and a higher Nusselt number. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the aero-thermal physics of endwall jump cooling concerning realistic combustor-turbine interface conditions.

Использование численного моделирования при анализе аэроупругого взаимодействия подвижного состава с тоннельными сооружениями

Purpose of the work: study of the formation of a complex air structure under conditions of rolling stock movement along extended underground structures using numerical modeling methods. Methods: an analysis of the influence of aerodynamic factors on rolling stock, passengers and railway infrastructure was carried out based on the finite element and volume method. The reasons for the occurrence of a compacted air zone, which appears in front of the head car of the train and exerts significant resistance to the movement of the train using the “Frozen Rotor” method, have been investigated. The indicators of energy efficiency and safety of the process of freight and passenger transportation are analyzed, taking into account the processes of aerodynamic interaction of moving rolling stock and artificial tunnel-type structures. Results: using numerical modeling and the use of the “Frozen Rotor” method, it was possible to obtain a qualitative picture of the distribution of transverse vortex air flows resulting from the occurrence of viscous friction. Regularities were discovered in the changes in the dynamics of pressure and speed of air masses on the surface of the head fairing when a train enters a tunnel. The fact of the negative impact of zones of high and low pressure, as well as their sharp drop, on the locomotive crew and passengers has been established. Practical significance: the possibility of conducting research in the field of aerodynamics of railway transport using modern numerical modeling methods is shown. This topic is very relevant in the field of designing high-speed rolling stock.

Effects of cornering conditions on the aerodynamic characteristics of a high-performance vehicle and its rear wing

This study investigates the aerodynamic behavior of a high-performance vehicle and the interaction with its rear wing in straight-line and steady-state cornering conditions. Analyses are performed with Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes based computational fluid dynamics simulations using a moving reference frame and overset mesh technique, validated against moving ground wind tunnel experiments. The results indicate a significant 20% decrease in downforce and 35% increase in drag compared to straight-line conditions at the smallest considered corner radius of 2.9 car-lengths. Downforce losses primarily stem from performance deficits on the underbody and rear wing, alongside elevated upper body lift. Drag penalties mainly result from additional pressure drag induced by a recirculation wake vortex generated behind the vehicle's inboard side. The vehicle's lateral pressure distribution is also affected, introducing a centripetal force that increases with smaller corner radii. Additionally, analyses of the rear wing reveal alternations of its aerodynamic characteristics in cornering, particularly impacting vortical flow and suction on the lower surface. Throughout the operating conditions, the rear wing's individual downforce contribution falls off beyond its stall angle. At higher angles of attack, the rear wing primarily generates downforce by pressurizing the vehicle's upper surfaces, but its interaction with the near-wake leads to a substantially increased pressure drag. Overall, these findings provide crucial insights into the intricate aerodynamic interactions of high-performance vehicles in diverse operating conditions as well as form an essential foundation for future research on static and active aerodynamic designs in the pursuit to optimize vehicle performance in dynamic driving conditions.

Assessing aerodynamic influences on offshore foundation design for large wind farms

An evaluation of the impact of aerodynamic interactions on offshore wind turbine (OWT) monopile design in large wind farms is presented. The interactions between turbines within a wind farm, and between the atmosphere and the entire wind-farm, act to reduce the mean effective loads across the farm. This reduction impacts the operational performance of OWT foundations in two notable ways: a decrease in turbine structural loads which affects design to serviceability limit state and a shift in excitation frequencies of the passing blades which impacts fatigue performance. To assess the implications on monopile design, we conduct static and dynamic analyses using a 1-D finite element model (FEM). We show that the farmatmosphere interaction effect leads to marked reduction in monopile lengths between ∼ 5 − 25% across an entire wind farm. The dynamic analysis reveals a competing balance between shifting frequency bands and reduced wind loads on the fatigue response. The monopile design is found to be strongly dependent on wind farm size and ratio of wind to wave loading, with wave loading coupled to the farm-atmosphere interaction effect. Exploiting these interactions plays a pivotal role in reducing the levelised cost of wind energy and ensuring robust design of OWTs.

Experimental and Computational Investigation of Aerodynamic Interactions in Quadrotor Configurations

The influence of interactional effects on quadrotor performance in forward flight was evaluated taking into account square and diamond configurations, forward and backward tilt angles, and a range of hub spacings including overlapping blades. The analysis was based on the wind-tunnel measurements and simulations from four midfidelity computational methods and the high-fidelity tool. The outcome indicates that the efficiency of a diamond configuration improves by 5% in comparison with isolated rotors for nonoverlapping rotor spacings, while the interactions in square alignments are detrimental for all analyzed test cases with the optimum at 0.04D blade overlap. The trend is more pronounced for the backward rotor tilt with intensified interactions, for which the efficiency of the diamond configuration increases by 11% at 1.2D rotor spacing. The computational results showed good agreement with the measurement data for the forward rotor plane tilt; however, for the backward tilt angle, the spread between the calculated values, especially for torque, could be observed with the general trends maintained. The study shows negligible impact of the rotor phasing on the quadrotor efficiency.

Validation of a Mid-Fidelity Numerical Approach for Wind Turbine Aerodynamics Characterization

This work is aimed at investigating the capabilities and limits of the mid-fidelity numerical solver DUST for the evaluation of wind turbines aerodynamic performance. In particular, this study was conducted by analysing the benchmarks NREL-5 MW and Phase VI wind turbines, widely investigated in the literature via experimental and numerical activities. The work was started by simulating a simpler configuration of the NREL-5 MW turbine to progressively integrate complexities such as shaft tilt, cone effects and yawed inflow conditions, offering a detailed portrayal of their collective impact on turbine performance. A particular focus was then given to the evaluation of aerodynamic responses from the tower and nacelle, as well as aerodynamic behavior in yawed inflow condition, crucial for optimizing farm layouts. In the second phase, the work was focused on the NREL Phase VI turbine due to the availability of experimental data on this benchmark case. A comparison of DUST simulation results with both experimental data and high-fidelity CFD tools shows the robustness and adaptability of this mid-fidelity solver for these applications, thus opening a new scenario for the use of such mid-fidelity tools for the preliminary design of novel wind turbine configurations or complex environments as wind farms, characterised by robust interactional aerodynamics.