Enrichment methods for inflow turbulence generation in the atmospheric boundary layer

Journal Article · 18 June 2018 · Journal of Physics. Conference Series

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1037/7/072054 · OSTI ID:1462467

Quon, Eliot W. ^[1]; Ghate, Aditya S. ^[2]; Lele, Sanjiva K. ^[2]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

Here, we investigate the feasibility of introducing synthetic turbulence into finite-domain large-eddy simulations (LES) of the wind plant operating environment. This effort is motivated by the need for a robust mesoscale-to-microscale coupling strategy in which a microscale (wind plant) simulation is driven by mesoscale data without any resolved microscale turbulence. A neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary layer was simulated in an LES with 10-m grid spacing. We show how such a fully developed turbulence field may be reproduced with spectral enrichment starting from an under-resolved coarse LES field (with 20-m and 40-m grid spacing). The velocity spectra of the under-resolved fields are enriched by superimposing a fluctuating velocity field calculated by two turbulence simulators: TurbSim and Gabor Kinematic Simulation. Both forms of enrichment accurately simulated the autospectra of all three velocity components at high wavenumbers, with agreement between the enriched fields and the full-resolution LES observed at 400 m from the inflow boundary. In contrast, the spectra of the unenriched fields reached the same fully developed state at four times the downstream distance.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1462467
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA--5000-71378
• Journal Information: Journal of Physics. Conference Series, Journal Name: Journal of Physics. Conference Series Vol. 1037; ISSN 1742-6588
• Publisher: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English