Modal dynamics of wind turbine wake meandering from lidar observations

Hamilton, Nicholas; Doubrawa, Paula; Moriarty, Patrick; Letizia, Stefano; Thedin, Regis

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2025.123555

Modal dynamics of wind turbine wake meandering from lidar observations

Journal Article · Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Renewable Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2025.123555· OSTI ID:2574683

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Letizia, Stefano ^[1]; Thedin, Regis ^[1]

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Horizontal scans from nacelle-mounted lidars provide time series measurements of wind turbine wakes across diverse atmospheric conditions, enabling analysis of coherent turbulent structures that influence wake meandering through proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). While low-order modes capture the most energetic turbulent structures, our analysis reveals that they do not necessarily dominate wake meandering dynamics. We evaluate more than 16,000 combinatorial reconstructions of the flow field for each inflow case, demonstrating that mode relevance depends on mode symmetry, turbulent kinetic energy content, and inflow characteristics. Cases with low turbulence intensity and large integral timescales show stronger correlations between POD modes and wake meandering, whereas higher turbulence conditions (turbulence intensity > 7%) are less effectively described by reduced-order models. However, the qualitative similarity of POD modes across varied atmospheric conditions suggests the potential existence of a semi-universal basis for representing wind turbine wakes, with implications for improving engineering wake models.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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:: 2574683

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5000-92636

Journal Information:: Renewable Energy, Journal Name: Renewable Energy Vol. 254; ISSN 0960-1481

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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