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

Title: Improving the FLORIS wind plant model for compatibility with gradient-based optimization

Journal Article · · Wind Engineering
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

The FLORIS (FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady-state) model, a parametric wind turbine wake model that predicts steady-state wake characteristics based on wind turbine position and yaw angle, was developed for optimization of control settings and turbine locations. This article provides details on changes made to the FLORIS model to make the model more suitable for gradient-based optimization. Changes to the FLORIS model were made to remove discontinuities and add curvature to regions of non-physical zero gradient. Exact gradients for the FLORIS model were obtained using algorithmic differentiation. A set of three case studies demonstrate that using exact gradients with gradient-based optimization reduces the number of function calls by several orders of magnitude. The case studies also show that adding curvature improves convergence behavior, allowing gradient-based optimization algorithms used with the FLORIS model to more reliably find better solutions to wind farm optimization problems.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1399845
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5000-70301
Journal Information:
Wind Engineering, Vol. 41, Issue 5; ISSN 0309-524X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (21)

Full-Scale Field Test of Wake Steering journal May 2017
Simulation comparison of wake mitigation control strategies for a two-turbine case: Simulation comparison of wake mitigation control strategies for a two-turbine case journal October 2014
SNOPT: An SQP Algorithm for Large-Scale Constrained Optimization journal January 2005
OpenMDAO: An Open Source Framework for Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization conference June 2012
CCBlade Documentation: Release 0.1.0 report September 2013
TOPFARM: Multi-fidelity optimization of wind farms: TOPFARM: Multi-fidelity optimization of wind farms journal November 2013
Wind plant power optimization through yaw control using a parametric model for wake effects-a CFD simulation study: Wind plant optimization by yaw control using a parametric wake model journal December 2014
Wind turbine wake models developed at the technical university of Denmark: A review journal July 2016
Survey of modelling methods for wind turbine wakes and wind farms journal January 1999
A Review of Methodological Approaches for the Design and Optimization of Wind Farms journal October 2014
Wind plant system engineering through optimization of layout and yaw control: Wind plant system engineering journal March 2015
Comparison of actuation methods for wake control in wind plants conference July 2015
Maximization of the annual energy production of wind power plants by optimization of layout and yaw-based wake control: Maximization of wind plant AEP by optimization of layout and wake control journal May 2016
New Approach for Placing Wind Turbines in a Wind Farm Using Genetic Algorithm journal December 2014
Experimental and theoretical study of wind turbine wakes in yawed conditions journal October 2016
Comparison of two wake models for use in gradient-based wind farm layout optimization conference July 2015
Measuring a Utility-Scale Turbine Wake Using the TTUKa Mobile Research Radars journal June 2012
A Viscous Three-Dimensional Differential/Actuator-Disk Method for the Aerodynamic Analysis of Wind Farms journal November 2002
Review and Unification of Methods for Computing Derivatives of Multidisciplinary Computational Models journal November 2013
The Tapenade automatic differentiation tool: Principles, model, and specification journal April 2013
Application of a LES technique to characterize the wake deflection of a wind turbine in yaw journal December 2009