Row Of Turbines Research Articles

The effect of blockage on power production for laterally aligned wind turbines

This paper studies the change in the individual power coefficients for a laterally aligned row of wind turbines over a single, free turbine in the context of varying inflow directions via numerical simulations. All turbines were rotating in-line with the main flow direction. The problem definition is similar to that of many wind turbine testing sites and wind farms. Hence any changes in the individual turbine power production could have implications regarding power curve validation procedures.These changes are relatively small and therefore the size of the computational domain was identified to be detrimental in avoiding any domain-inflicted blockage. Increasing the misalignment of the main flow direction with the row of turbines led to significant variations in the power production across turbines. At the largest inflow angle of 45° it varied from -1.1% to 2%. As a whole, the power production increased by about 0.5%, almost independent of the inflow direction.

Designing a Model to Implement Healthcare Team Work through Coaching and Navigation

The smart fatigue load control of a large-scale wind turbine blade subject to wake effect was numerically investigated in this paper. The performances were evaluated and compared at selected typical wind speeds within the whole operational region under three turbine layout strategies, i.e., column, row and array arrangements, together with a single turbine case as reference, utilizing our newly developed aero-servo-elastic platform. It was observed that not only the blade fatigue loads but the stabilities of power and collective pitch angle were effectively controlled for all cases, especially at the highest studied hub velocity of 20 m/s, leading to the averaged reduction percentages in the standard deviations of the flapwise root moment, the flapwise tip deflection and the root damage equivalent load, of about 30.0%, 20.0% and 20.0%, respectively. Furthermore, the control effectiveness gradually lessened in the sequences of single, column, row and array cases, with successively increasing effective turbulence intensity, within regions II and III. The performances in region III, associated with the impaired flow separation on the blade by the effective pitching action, were much better than those in region II, related to enhanced flow detachment. In addition, at the rated wind velocity, the control for the array case was superior over other three cases, which was thought to be originated from the more pitch activities to impair the uncontrolled flow separation on the blade surface.

RETRACTED: Estimation of wind turbine wake effect by adaptive neuro-fuzzy approach

The grouping of turbines in large farms introduces that a wind turbine operating in the wake of another turbine and has a reduced power production because of a lower wind speed after rotor. The flow field in the wake behind the first row turbines is characterized by a significant deficit in wind velocity and increased levels of turbulence intensity. Consequently, the downstream turbines in a wind farm cannot extract as much power from the wind as the first row turbines. Therefore modeling wake effect is necessary because it has a great influence on the actual energy output of a wind farm. In this study, the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is designed and adapted to estimate wake effect in a wind farm according to wind turbine positions in wind farm, distances between turbines in the wind farm and rotor radius as well.

Simulations of an Offshore Wind Farm Using Large-Eddy Simulation and a Torque-Controlled Actuator Disc Model

We present here a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of Lillgrund offshore wind farm, which is located in the Øresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark. The simulation combines a dynamic representation of wind turbines embedded within a large-eddy simulation CFD solver and uses hr-adaptive meshing to increase or decrease mesh resolution where required. This allows the resolution of both large-scale flow structures around the wind farm, and the local flow conditions at individual turbines; consequently, the response of each turbine to local conditions can be modelled, as well as the resulting evolution of the turbine wakes. This paper provides a detailed description of the turbine model which simulates the interaction between the wind, the turbine rotors, and the turbine generators by calculating the forces on the rotor, the body forces on the air, and instantaneous power output. This model was used to investigate a selection of key wind speeds and directions, investigating cases where a row of turbines would be fully aligned with the wind or at specific angles to the wind. Results shown here include presentations of the spin-up of turbines, the observation of eddies moving through the turbine array, meandering turbine wakes, and an extensive wind farm wake several kilometres in length. The key measurement available for cross-validation with operational wind farm data is the power output from the individual turbines, where the effect of unsteady turbine wakes on the performance of downstream turbines was a main point of interest. The results from the simulations were compared to the performance measurements from the real wind farm to provide a firm quantitative validation of this methodology. Having achieved good agreement between the model results and actual wind farm measurements, the potential of the methodology to provide a tool for further investigations of engineering and atmospheric science problems is outlined.

블레이드 열의 배치에 따른 베인형 조류 수차의 성능 비교

This paper presents a study on Vane Tidal Turbine (VTT) focusing on analysis of two types of blade arrangement originated from the previous studies where the original design was examined and performance-tested for different numbers of blades (six, eight and twelve). Compared to conventional tidal turbines, VTT has several special features and potential advantages which have been being thoroughly developed. The purpose of this study is to analyze VTT’s capability of extracting and converting the hydrokinetic energy of tidal currents into electricity at given arrangement of blades (single and double rows, six and twelve blades) using CFD. From the calculation results, the six-blade single row turbine shows the best performance, in which the highest power and torque coefficients reach up to about 34 % and 36 %, respectively, at TSR=0.94. However, despite of lower power coefficient, by adding more blades, the torque’s extraction of twelve-blade turbine, especially the double row type, is less fluctuate than that of the six-blade setups.

Anisotropy of the Reynolds stress tensor in the wakes of wind turbine arrays in Cartesian arrangements with counter-rotating rotors

A 4 × 3 wind turbine array in a Cartesian arrangement was constructed in a wind tunnel setting with four configurations based on the rotational sense of the rotor blades. The fourth row of devices is considered to be in the fully developed turbine canopy for a Cartesian arrangement. Measurements of the flow field were made with stereo particle-image velocimetry immediately upstream and downstream of the selected model turbines. Rotational sense of the turbine blades is evident in the mean spanwise velocity W and the Reynolds shear stress −vw¯. The flux of kinetic energy is shown to be of greater magnitude following turbines in arrays where direction of rotation of the blades varies. Invariants of the normalized Reynolds stress anisotropy tensor (η and ξ) are plotted in the Lumley triangle and indicate that distinct characters of turbulence exist in regions of the wake following the nacelle and the rotor blade tips. Eigendecomposition of the tensor yields principle components and corresponding coordinate system transformations. Characteristic spheroids representing the balance of components in the normalized anisotropy tensor are composed with the eigenvalues yielding shapes predicted by the Lumley triangle. Rotation of the coordinate system defined by the eigenvectors demonstrates trends in the streamwise coordinate following the rotors, especially trailing the top-tip of the rotor and below the hub. Direction of rotation of rotor blades is shown by the orientation of characteristic spheroids according to principle axes. In the inflows of exit row turbines, the normalized Reynolds stress anisotropy tensor shows cumulative effects of the upstream turbines, tending toward prolate shapes for uniform rotational sense, oblate spheroids for streamwise organization of rotational senses, and a mixture of characteristic shapes when the rotation varies by row. Comparison between the invariants of the Reynolds stress anisotropy tensor and terms from the mean mechanical energy equation indicate correlation between the degree of anisotropy and the regions of the wind turbine wakes where turbulence kinetic energy is produced. The flux of kinetic energy into the momentum-deficit area of the wake from above the canopy is associated with prolate characteristic spheroids. Flux upward into the wake from below the rotor area is associated with oblate characteristic spheroids. Turbulence in the region of the flow directly following the nacelle of the wind turbines demonstrates greater isotropy than regions following the rotor blades. The power and power coefficients for wind turbines indicate that flow structures on the order of magnitude of the spanwise turbine spacing that increase turbine efficiency depending on particular array configuration.

Reduced order model of the inherent turbulence of wind turbine wakes inside an infinitely long row of turbines

The turbulence in the interior of an idealised wind farm is simulated using Large Eddy Simulation and the Actuator Line technique implemented in the Navier-Stokes equations. The simulation is carried out for an 'infinitely' long row of turbines simulated by applying cyclic boundary conditions at the inlet and outlet. The simulations investigate the turbulence inherent to the wind turbines as no ambient turbulence or shear is added to this idealised case. A Reduced Order Model for the highly turbulent flow deep inside a wind farm is proposed based on a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. The reconstructed flow is shown to capture the large scale motions of the highly turbulent flow.

Turbulence within variable-size wind turbine arrays

A wind tunnel experiment was performed to study turbulence processes within a model wind turbine array of 3 by 8 model wind turbines of alternating sizes placed aligned with the mean flow. The model wind farm was placed in a boundary layer developed over both smooth and rough surfaces under neutrally stratified conditions. Turbulence statistics, TKE budget terms, and the spectral structure of the turbulence generated within and above the wind farm reveal relevant information about the processes modulating the turbulent energy transfer from the boundary layer to the turbines. The results of the experiment suggest that heterogeneity in turbine size within a wind farm introduce complex flow interactions not seen in a homogeneous farm, and may have positive effects on turbulent loading on the turbines and turbulent exchange with the atmosphere. In general, large scale motions are heavily dampened behind the first row of turbines but a portion of such structures are generated far inside the wind farm, and the scale of the most energetic eddy motions was relatively consistent at different elevations. Overall, the experiment revealed the possibility that heterogeneity of wind turbine size within wind farms have the potential to change the overall potential to harvest energy from the wind, and alter the economics of a project.

Wake Measurements at alpha ventus – Dependency on Stability and Turbulence Intensity

Wind and power deficit in the wake are assessed for the offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus. Operational data are evaluated for the power deficit in the wake of a single wind turbine and in a row of wind turbines. The wake of a single wind turbine is described by the maximum power deficit and expansion width of the wake. The impact of atmospheric stability in respect to vertical wind shear and turbulence intensity is assessed showing that wake effects are more pronounced under stable conditions.

Equivocal effects of offshore wind farms in Belgium on soft substrate epibenthos and fish assemblages

With the construction of wind farms, new hard substrates are introduced in the marine environment. Between the turbine rows and around the wind farms, however, the soft sediments remain. The inhabiting fauna of these sandy sediments may be influenced by the presence of the turbines and the absence of fisheries in the wind farms. These effects were investigated for epibenthos, demersal fish, and benthopelagic fish in the Thorntonbank and Bligh Bank wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Inside the wind farms, several local and temporal effects were detected, including both temporary construction effects (e.g., decreased densities of dab, ophiuroids and dragonets) as refugium effects (e.g., the presence of relatively large plaice). At the wind farm edges, only few temporary effects were noted, but real edge effects due to changes in fisheries intensity or ‘spillover’ from the wind farms could not be shown. The observed effects were not consistent between both wind farms, which is not surprising, given the differences in epibenthos and fish communities, sandbank topography, fishing pressure, development stage of the wind farms, and the used foundation types. This inconsistency stresses the importance to replicate monitoring activities across wind farms and along the identified gradients.

Comparison of Engineering Wake Models with CFD Simulations

The engineering wake models by Jensen [1] and Frandsen et al. [2] are assessed for different scenarios simulated using Large Eddy Simulation and the Actuator Line method implemented in the Navier-Stokes equations. The scenarios include the far wake behind a single wind turbine, a long row of turbines in an atmospheric boundary layer, idealised cases of an infinitely long row of wind turbines and infinite wind farms with three different spacings. Both models include a wake expansion factor, which is calibrated to fit the simulated wake velocities. The analysis highlights physical deficiencies in the ability of the models to universally predict the wake velocities, as the expansion factor can be fitted for a given case, but with not apparent transition between the cases.

Study of the influence of imposed turbulence on the asymptotic wake deficit in a very long line of wind turbines

The influence of imposed turbulence on the development of the flow along a long row of wind turbines is studied, in search for an asymptotic wake deficit state. Calculations are performed using EllipSys3D, a CFD code that solves the Navier–Stokes equations in their incompressible form using a finite volume approach. In this code, the Large-Eddy Simulation technique is used for modeling turbulence, and the wind turbine rotors are represented as actuator discs whose loading is determined through the use of tabulated airfoil data by applying the blade-element method.Ten turbines are located along a row and separated from each other by seven rotor diameters, which is representative of the distance used in today's offshore wind farms. Turbulence is pre-generated with the Mann model, with imposed turbulence intensity levels of 4.5% and 8.9%. The aim with this study is to investigate features of the flow that depend solely on imposed turbulence and the presence of wind turbine rotors. For this reason, the turbines are isolated from their environment, and no effect from the presence of the atmospheric boundary layer is modeled, i.e., a non-sheared inflow is used. Analysis of the characteristics of the flow as a function of the position along the row of turbines is performed in terms of standard deviation of the velocity components, turbulence kinetic energy, mean velocity, and power spectra of the axial velocity fluctuations. The mean power production along the row of turbines is also used as an indicator.Calculations are performed below rated power, where a generator torque controller implemented in EllipSys3D renders it possible for the turbines to adapt to the flow conditions in which they operate.The results obtained for the standard deviation of the velocity components, turbulence kinetic energy, power and mean velocity as functions of downstream distance show that an asymptotic wake state seems close to be reached, in the conditions tested, near the end of the 10 turbine row. Significant changes towards this state are seen to happen faster when imposing turbulence in the domain. Power spectra of the axial velocity fluctuations are shown to provide interesting information about the turbulence in the flow, but are found not to be useful in determining if an asymptotic wake state is reached.

Changes in fluxes of heat, H2O, and CO2 caused by a large wind farm

The Crop Wind-Energy Experiment (CWEX) provides a platform to investigate the effect of wind turbines and large wind farms on surface fluxes of momentum, heat, moisture, and carbon dioxide (CO2). In 2010 and 2011, eddy covariance flux stations were installed between two lines of turbines at the southwest edge of a large Iowa wind farm from late June to early September. We report changes in fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, latent heat, and CO2 above a corn canopy after surface air had passed through a single line of turbines. In 2010, our flux stations were placed within a field with homogeneous land management practices (same tillage, cultivar, chemical treatments). We stratify the data according to wind direction, diurnal condition, and turbine operational status. Within these categories, the downwind–upwind flux differences quantify turbine influences at the crop surface. Flux differences were negligible in both westerly wind conditions and when the turbines were non operational. When the flow is perpendicular (southerly) or slightly oblique (southwesterly) to the row of turbines during the day, fluxes of CO2 and water (H2O) are enhanced by a factor of five in the lee of the turbines (from three to five turbine diameter distances downwind from the tower) as compared to a west wind. However, we observe a smaller CO2 flux increase of 30–40% for these same wind directions when the turbines are off. In the nighttime, there is strong statistical significance that turbine wakes enhance upward CO2 fluxes and entrain sensible heat toward the crop. The direction of the scalar flux perturbation seems closely associated to the differences in canopy friction velocity. Spectra and co-spectra of momentum components and co-spectra of heat also demonstrate nighttime influence of the wind turbine turbulence at the downwind station.

Large eddy simulation studies of the effects of alignment and wind farm length

Large eddy simulations of wind farms are performed to study the effects of wind turbine row alignment with respect to the incoming flow direction. Various wind farms with fixed stream-wise spacing (7.85 rotor diameters) and varying lateral displacements and span-wise turbine spacings are considered, for a fixed inflow direction. Simulations show that, contrary to common belief, a perfectly staggered (checker-board) configuration does not necessarily give the highest average power output. Instead, the highest mean wind farm power output is found to depend on several factors, the most important one being the alignment that leads to minimization of wake effects from turbines in several upstream rows. This alignment typically occurs at significantly smaller angles than those corresponding to perfect staggering. The observed trends have implications for wind farm designs, especially in sites with a well-defined prevailing wind direction.

Large‐eddy simulations of the Lillgrund wind farm

AbstractThe power production of the Lillgrund wind farm is determined numerically using large‐eddy simulations and compared with measurements. In order to simulate realistic atmospheric conditions, pre‐generated turbulence and wind shear are imposed in the computational domain. The atmospheric conditions are determined from data extracted from a met mast, which was erected prior to the establishment of the farm. In order to allocate most of the computational power to the simulations of the wake flow, the turbines are modeled using an actuator disc method where the discs are imposed in the computational domain as body forces which for every time step are calculated from tabulated airfoil data. A study of the influence of imposed upstream ambient turbulence is performed and shows that higher levels of turbulence results in slightly increased total power production and that it is of great importance to include ambient turbulence in the simulations. By introducing ambient atmospheric turbulence, the simulations compare very well with measurements at the studied inflow angles. A final study aiming at increasing the farm production by curtailing the power output of the front row turbines and thus letting more kinetic energy pass downstream is performed. The results, however, show that manipulating only the front row turbines has no positive effect on the farm production, and therefore, more complex curtailment strategies are needed to be tested. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Wind turbine boundary layer arrays for Cartesian and staggered configurations‐Part I, flow field and power measurements

AbstractModel wind turbine arrays were developed for the purpose of investigating the wake interaction and turbine canopy layer in a standard cartesian and row‐offset turbine array configurations. Stereographic particle image velocimetry was used to collect flow data upstream and downstream of entrance and exit row turbines in each configuration. Wakes for all cases were analyzed for energy content and recovery behavior including entrainment of high‐momentum flow from above the turbine canopy layer. The row‐offset arrangement of turbines within an array grants an increase in streamwise spacing of devices and allows for greater wake remediation between successive rows. These effects are seen in exit row turbine wakes as changes to statistical quantities including the in‐plane Reynolds stress, , and the production of turbulence. The recovery of wakes also strongly mitigates the perceived underperformance of wind turbines within an array. The flux of kinetic energy is demonstrated to be more localized in the entrance rows and in the offset arrangement. Extreme values for the flux of kinetic energy are about 7.5% less in the exit row of the cartesian arrangement than in the offset arrangement. Measurements of mechanical torque at entrance and exit row turbines lead to curves of power coefficient and demonstrate an increase in efficiency in row‐offset configurations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Centred and staggered arrangements of tidal turbines

AbstractIn this paper we extend linear momentum actuator disc theory to consider two rows of tidal turbines placed in a centred or staggered arrangement. The extensions assume a streamwise spacing between rows that is sufficient for pressure equalization, but is not too large for significant mixing of the upstream turbine wake before the second row. We first consider a given number of turbines in a tidal channel; in this case the average power for a staggered arrangement over two rows is found to be higher than that for a centred arrangement, but lower than can be obtained by placing all turbines side-by-side in one row (if all turbines have the same local resistance). Furthermore, staggered arrangements extract power more efficiently than centred arrangements, but less efficiently than a single row with the same number of turbines, and this has implications for ranking different arrangements of tidal turbines. We also use the extended actuator disc models (together with an argument of scale separation) to consider some example arrangements of tidal turbines in laterally unconfined flow. Specifically, it is shown that locally staggering a fixed number of turbines in an array to form a tidal farm generates less power than placing the same number of turbines side-by-side. However, if more than one row of turbines is adopted (perhaps to keep the farm spatially compact) then the optimum turbine spacing within a row increases significantly with addition of a second row. This trend suggests that multi-row tidal turbine farms would require wide turbine spacing within each row to maximize the power per turbine, similarly to existing offshore wind farms.

Two improvements to the dynamic wake meandering model: including the effects of atmospheric shear on wake turbulence and incorporating turbulence build‐up in a row of wind turbines

ABSTRACTThe dynamic wake meandering (DWM) model is an engineering wake model designed to physically model the wake deficit evolution and the unsteady meandering that occurs in wind turbine wakes. The present study aims at improving two features of the model: The effect of the atmospheric boundary layer shear on the wake deficit evolution by including a strain‐rate contribution in the wake turbulence calculation.The method to account for the increased turbulence at a wake‐affected turbine by basing the wake‐added turbulence directly on the Reynolds stresses of the oncoming wake. This also allows the model to simulate the build‐up of turbulence over a row of turbines in a physically consistent manner.The performance of the modified model is validated against actuator line (AL) model results and field data from the Lillgrund offshore wind farm. Qualitatively, the modified DWM model is in fair agreement with the reference data. A quantitative comparison between the mean flow field of the DWM model with and without the suggested improvements, to that of the AL model, shows that the root‐mean‐square difference in terms of wind speed and turbulence intensity is reduced on the order of 30% and 40%, respectively, by including the proposed corrections for a row of eight turbines. Furthermore, it is found that the root‐mean‐square difference between the AL model and the modified DWM model in terms of wind speed and turbulence intensity does not increase over a row of turbines compared with the root‐mean‐square difference of a single turbine. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The available power from tidal stream turbines in the Pentland Firth

This paper assesses an upper bound for the tidal stream power resource of the Pentland Firth. A depth-averaged numerical model of the tidal dynamics in the region is set-up and validated against field measurements. Actuator disc theory is used to model the effect of turbines on the flow, and to estimate the power available for generation after accounting for losses owing to mixing downstream of the turbines. It is found that three rows of turbines extending across the entire width of the Pentland Firth and blocking a large fraction of the channel can theoretically generate 1.9 GW, averaged over the spring–neap cycle. However, generation of significantly more power than this is unlikely to be feasible as the available power per additional swept area of turbine is too small to be viable. Our results differ from those obtained using simplified tidal channel models of the type used commonly in the literature. We also use our numerical model to investigate the available power from rows of turbines placed across various subchannels within the Pentland Firth, together with practical considerations such as the variation in power over the spring–neap tidal cycle and the changes to natural tidal flows which result from power extraction.

Simulation of the inherent turbulence and wake interaction inside an infinitely long row of wind turbines

The turbulence in the interior of a wind farm is simulated using large eddy simulation and the actuator line technique implemented in the Navier–Stokes equations. The simulations are carried out for an infinitely long row of turbines simulated by applying cyclic boundary conditions at the inlet and outlet. The simulations investigate the turbulence inherent to the wind turbines as no ambient turbulence or shear is added to this idealised case. The simulated data give insight into the performance of the wind turbines operating in the wake of others as well as details on key turbulent quantities. One of the key features of wakes behind wind turbines is the dynamic wake meandering, which is shown to be related to the wind turbine spacing and the vortex shedding from the turbine as a bluff body. The flow is analysed and reconstructed by applying proper orthogonal decomposition.