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Coupling Mesoscale Budget Components to Large-Eddy Simulations for Wind-Energy Applications

Journal Article · · Boundary-Layer Meteorology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Renewable and Sustainable Energy Inst. (RASEI), Boulder, CO (United States)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
To simulate the airflow through a wind farm across a wide range of atmospheric conditions, microscale models (e.g., large-eddy simulation, LES, models) have to be coupled with mesoscale models, because microscale models lack the atmospheric physical processes to represent time-varying local forcing. Here we couple mesoscale model outputs to a LES solver by applying mesoscale momentum- and temperature-budget components from the Weather Research and Forecasting model to the governing equations of the Simulator fOr Wind Farm Applications model. We test whether averaging the budget components affects the LES results with regard to quantities of interest to wind energy. Our study focuses on flat terrain during a quiescent diurnal cycle. The simulation results are compared with observations from a 200-m tall meteorological tower and a wind-profiling radar, by analyzing time series, profiles, rotor-averaged quantities, and spectra. However, while results show that averaging reduces the spatio-temporal variability of the mesoscale momentum-budget components, when coupled with the LES model, the mesoscale bias (in comparison with observations of wind speed and direction, and potential temperature) is not reduced. In contrast, the LES technique can correct for shear and veer. In both cases, however, averaging the budget components shows no significant impact on the mean flow quantities in the microscale and is not necessary when coupling mesocale budget components to the LES model.
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1766830
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5000-75141; MainId:6607; UUID:939d0677-a8ea-e911-9c29-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:15189
Journal Information:
Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Journal Name: Boundary-Layer Meteorology Vol. 179; ISSN 0006-8314
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
OpenFOAM
WRF
mesoscale-to-microscale coupling
momentum budget components