Numerical investigation of the influence of shear and thermal stratification on the wind turbine tip‐vortex stability

Hodgkin, Amy; Laizet, Sylvain; Deskos, Georgios

doi:10.1002/we.2728

Numerical investigation of the influence of shear and thermal stratification on the wind turbine tip‐vortex stability

Journal Article · Sun Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Wind Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2728· OSTI ID:1863480

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Department of Aeronautics Imperial College London UK
National Wind Technology Center National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden Colorado USA

Summary

The interaction between wind turbine wakes and atmospheric turbulence is characterised by complex dynamics. In this study, two major components of the atmospheric boundary layer dynamics have been isolated, namely, the mean velocity profile shear and the thermal stratification, to examine their impact on the near‐wake development by undertaking a series of highly resolved large‐eddy simulations. Subsequently, instantaneous flow fields are extracted from the simulations and used to conduct Fourier analysis and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and compute the mean kinetic energy fluxes by different POD modes to better understand the tip‐vortex instability mechanisms. Our findings indicate that shear can significantly affect the breakup of the wind turbine tip‐vortices and the shape and stable length of the wake, whereas thermal stratification seems to only have limited contribution to the spatial development of the near‐wake field. Finally, our analysis shows that the applied perturbation frequency determines the tip‐vortex breakup location as it controls the onset of the mutual inductance instability.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1863480

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1863481
OSTI ID: 1865874

Journal Information:: Wind Energy, Journal Name: Wind Energy Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 25; ISSN 1095-4244

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United Kingdom

Language:: English

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Numerical investigation of the influence of shear and thermal stratification on the wind turbine tip‐vortex stability

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