skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Development of a Wind Plant Large-Eddy Simulation with Measurement-Driven Atmospheric Inflow: Preprint

Conference ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2017-1163· OSTI ID:1344331
; ; ;

This paper details the development of an aeroelastic wind plant model with large-eddy simulation (LES). The chosen LES solver is the Simulator for Wind Farm Applications (SOWFA) based on the OpenFOAM framework, coupled to NREL's comprehensive aeroelastic analysis tool, FAST. An atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) precursor simulation was constructed based on assessments of meteorological tower, lidar, and radar data over a 3-hour window. This precursor was tuned to the specific atmospheric conditions that occurred both prior to and during the measurement campaign, enabling capture of a night-to-day transition in the turbulent ABL. In the absence of height-varying temperature measurements, spatially averaged radar data were sufficient to characterize the atmospheric stability of the wind plant in terms of the shear profile, and near-ground temperature sensors provided a reasonable estimate of the ground heating rate describing the morning transition. A full aeroelastic simulation was then performed for a subset of turbines within the wind plant, driven by the precursor. Analysis of two turbines within the array, one directly waked by the other, demonstrated good agreement with measured time-averaged loads.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind and Water Technologies Office (EE-4W)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1344331
Report Number(s):
NREL/CP-5000-67521
Resource Relation:
Conference: Presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SciTech 2017, 9-13 January 2017, Grapevine, Texas
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (8)

Atmospheric and Wake Turbulence Impacts on Wind Turbine Fatigue Loadings
  • Lee, Sang; Churchfield, Matthew; Moriarty, Patrick
  • 50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2012-540
conference November 2012
An inconvenient “truth” about using sensible heat flux as a surface boundary condition in models under stably stratified regimes journal November 2007
Atmospheric stability affects wind turbine power collection journal January 2012
A Large-Eddy Simulations of Wind-Plant Aerodynamics
  • Churchfield, Matthew; Lee, Sang; Moriarty, Patrick
  • 50th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2012-537
conference November 2012
A Comparison of the Dynamic Wake Meandering Model, Large-Eddy Simulation, and Field Data at the Egmond aan Zee Offshore Wind Plant conference January 2015
Wind Energy Explained: Theory, Design and Application book December 2009
Could Crop Height Affect the Wind Resource at Agriculturally Productive Wind Farm Sites? journal November 2015
A numerical study of the effects of atmospheric and wake turbulence on wind turbine dynamics journal January 2012

Similar Records

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
large eddy simulation
SOWFA
OpenFOAM
FAST
atmospheric boundary layer
aeroelastic analyis