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Title: Turbulence kinetic energy budget and conditional sampling of momentum, scalar, and intermittency fluxes in thermally stratified wind farms

Journal Article · · Journal of Turbulence (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Portland State Univ., Portland, OR (United States)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

A description of the turbulence kinetic energy budget is investigated to understand the dynamics and turbulence energy transfer between the atmospheric boundary layer and large wind farms. The turbulence kinetic energy budget terms are a dominant factor in explaining the energy supply process in wind farms. Large eddy simulations are used to generate the thermally stratified wind turbine array boundary layer, where stable and unstable conditions are considered. The wakes represent a sink of mean kinetic energy, and turbulence transport redistributes energy in the wake region. The energy balance between the budget terms is dependent on the physical location in the wind farm. During the unstable scenario, turbulence is driven by the production, transport, and buoyancy terms. Further, the contribution of the turbulence kinetic energy budget terms is reduced with increasing atmospheric stability, especially above the shear layer, where the mechanical production is the dominant term. Pressure diffusion redistributes the turbulent energy from the streamwise direction into the other components of the normal Reynolds stresses. This distinctive feature of the changing thermal stratification is presented through the quadrant analysis. The momentum ejection and sweep frequencies are both comparable and dominant. The scalar flux shows an increase in the contribution of the negative correlation in the quadrants. The quadrant analysis is extended to account for intermittency based on the pointwise Holder exponents. As a result, positive correlations are dominant in the wake and in higher layers of the domain for both considered cases.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind Energy Technologies Office (EE-4WE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1500073
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5000-72248
Journal Information:
Journal of Turbulence (Online), Journal Name: Journal of Turbulence (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 20; ISSN 1468-5248
Publisher:
Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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