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Title: Effects of Changing Atmospheric Conditions on Wind Turbine Performance (Poster)

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1056725

Multi-megawatt, utility-scale wind turbines operate in turbulent and dynamic winds that impact turbine performance in ways that are gradually becoming better understood. This poster presents a study made using a turbulent flow field simulator (TurbSim) and a Turbine aeroelastic simulator (FAST) of the response of a generic 1.5 MW wind turbine to changing inflow. The turbine power output is found to be most sensitive to wind speed and turbulence intensity, but the relationship depends on the wind speed with respect to the turbine's rated wind speed. Shear is found to be poorly correlated to power. A machine learning method called 'regression trees' is used to create a simple model of turbine performance that could be used as part of the wind resource assessment process. This study has used simple flow fields and should be extended to more complex flows, and validated with field observations.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Wind Program
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1056725
Report Number(s):
NREL/PO-5000-57084
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, 3-7 December 2012, San Francisco, California; Related Information: NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English