Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications
Abstract
Here, the sensitivities of idealized Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to variations of model configuration and forcing parameters on quantities of interest to wind power applications are examined. Simulated wind speed, turbulent fluxes, spectra and cospectra are assessed in relation to variations of two physical factors, geostrophic wind speed and surface roughness length, and several model configuration choices, including mesh size and grid aspect ratio, turbulence model, and numerical discretization schemes, in three different code bases. Two case studies representing nearly steady neutral and convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain were used to force and assess idealized LES, using periodic lateral boundary conditions. Comparison with fast-response velocity measurements at five heights within the lowest 50 m indicates that most model configurations performed similarly overall, with differences between observed and predicted wind speed generally smaller than measurement variability. Simulations of convective conditions produced turbulence quantities and spectra that matched the observations well, while those of neutral simulations produced good predictions of stress, but smaller than observed magnitudes of turbulence kinetic energy, likely due to tower wakes influencing the measurements. While sensitivities to model configuration choices and variability in forcing can be considerable, idealized LES are shownmore »
- Authors:
-
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Centro Nacional de Energias Renovables, Navarra (Spain)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- United States Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C. (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); United States Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C. (United States)
- United States Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C. (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1441170
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5000-70811
Journal ID: ISSN 2366-7621
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Wind Energy Science Discussions
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2366-7621
- Publisher:
- European Academy of Wind Energy - Copernicus
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 17 WIND ENERGY; wind energy; wind power; large-eddy simulation; LES; atmospheric boundary layer
Citation Formats
Mirocha, Jeffrey D., Churchfield, Matthew J., Munoz-Esparza, Domingo, Rai, Raj K., Feng, Yan, Kosovic, Branko, Haupt, Sue Ellen, Brown, Barbara, Ennis, Brandon L., Draxl, Caroline, Sanz Rodrigo, Javier, Shaw, William J., Berg, Larry K., Moriarty, Patrick J., Linn, Rodman R., Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra R., Balakrishnan, Ramesh, Cline, Joel W., Robinson, Michael C., and Ananthan, Shreyas. Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.5194/wes-2017-33.
Mirocha, Jeffrey D., Churchfield, Matthew J., Munoz-Esparza, Domingo, Rai, Raj K., Feng, Yan, Kosovic, Branko, Haupt, Sue Ellen, Brown, Barbara, Ennis, Brandon L., Draxl, Caroline, Sanz Rodrigo, Javier, Shaw, William J., Berg, Larry K., Moriarty, Patrick J., Linn, Rodman R., Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra R., Balakrishnan, Ramesh, Cline, Joel W., Robinson, Michael C., & Ananthan, Shreyas. Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2017-33
Mirocha, Jeffrey D., Churchfield, Matthew J., Munoz-Esparza, Domingo, Rai, Raj K., Feng, Yan, Kosovic, Branko, Haupt, Sue Ellen, Brown, Barbara, Ennis, Brandon L., Draxl, Caroline, Sanz Rodrigo, Javier, Shaw, William J., Berg, Larry K., Moriarty, Patrick J., Linn, Rodman R., Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra R., Balakrishnan, Ramesh, Cline, Joel W., Robinson, Michael C., and Ananthan, Shreyas. Tue .
"Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2017-33. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1441170.
@article{osti_1441170,
title = {Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications},
author = {Mirocha, Jeffrey D. and Churchfield, Matthew J. and Munoz-Esparza, Domingo and Rai, Raj K. and Feng, Yan and Kosovic, Branko and Haupt, Sue Ellen and Brown, Barbara and Ennis, Brandon L. and Draxl, Caroline and Sanz Rodrigo, Javier and Shaw, William J. and Berg, Larry K. and Moriarty, Patrick J. and Linn, Rodman R. and Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra R. and Balakrishnan, Ramesh and Cline, Joel W. and Robinson, Michael C. and Ananthan, Shreyas},
abstractNote = {Here, the sensitivities of idealized Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to variations of model configuration and forcing parameters on quantities of interest to wind power applications are examined. Simulated wind speed, turbulent fluxes, spectra and cospectra are assessed in relation to variations of two physical factors, geostrophic wind speed and surface roughness length, and several model configuration choices, including mesh size and grid aspect ratio, turbulence model, and numerical discretization schemes, in three different code bases. Two case studies representing nearly steady neutral and convective atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain were used to force and assess idealized LES, using periodic lateral boundary conditions. Comparison with fast-response velocity measurements at five heights within the lowest 50 m indicates that most model configurations performed similarly overall, with differences between observed and predicted wind speed generally smaller than measurement variability. Simulations of convective conditions produced turbulence quantities and spectra that matched the observations well, while those of neutral simulations produced good predictions of stress, but smaller than observed magnitudes of turbulence kinetic energy, likely due to tower wakes influencing the measurements. While sensitivities to model configuration choices and variability in forcing can be considerable, idealized LES are shown to reliably reproduce quantities of interest to wind energy applications within the lower ABL during quasi-ideal, nearly steady neutral and convective conditions over nearly flat and homogeneous terrain.},
doi = {10.5194/wes-2017-33},
journal = {Wind Energy Science Discussions},
number = ,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Tue Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
Works referenced in this record:
LLNL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
ANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
- Kosovic, Branko
- microscale.anl.wrfles.neutral.ttu, 135 MB
LANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
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- Atmosphere to Electrons, 117 MB
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The Effect of Wind-Turbine Wakes on Summertime US Midwest Atmospheric Wind Profiles as Observed with Ground-Based Doppler Lidar
journal, July 2013
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Bridging the Transition from Mesoscale to Microscale Turbulence in Numerical Weather Prediction Models
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Comparison of Measured and Numerically Simulated Turbulence Statistics in a Convective Boundary Layer Over Complex Terrain
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RAMS sensitivity to grid spacing and grid aspect ratio in Large-Eddy Simulations of the dry neutral Atmospheric Boundary Layer
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Large Eddy Simulation of wind farm aerodynamics: A review
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Subgrid-scale modeling for large-eddy simulations of compressible turbulence
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Large-eddy simulation of a very large wind farm in a stable atmospheric boundary layer
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A stochastic perturbation method to generate inflow turbulence in large-eddy simulation models: Application to neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary layers
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A numerical study of the effects of atmospheric and wake turbulence on wind turbine dynamics
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A methodology for the design and testing of atmospheric boundary layer models for wind energy applications
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PNNL - WRF-LES - Convective - TTU
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- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
ANL - WRF-LES - Convective - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
LANL - WRF-LES - Convective - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
LLNL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
ANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
- Kosovic, Branko
- microscale.anl.wrfles.neutral.ttu, 135 MB
LANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
- Mirocha, J. D.; Churchfield, M. J.; Munoz-Esparza, D.
- Atmosphere to Electrons, 117 MB
NREL - SOWFA - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
LANL - Convective - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
LANL - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
Tower - TTU (SWiFT) Tower, All levels - Processed Data
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- Kosovic, Branko
- tower.z01.a0, 12 MB
Tower - TTU (SWiFT) Tower, All levels - Raw Data
dataset, January 2020
- Ennis, Brandon
- Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Data Archive and Portal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
Radar - TTU radar - Raw Data
dataset, January 2020
- Ennis, Brandon
- Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Data Archive and Portal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
Nrel
dataset, January 2021
- Anderson, Amanda
- Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Data Archive and Portal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
NREL - Domain - d03
dataset, January 2021
- Anderson, Amanda
- Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Data Archive and Portal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
PNNL - Domain - d03
dataset, January 2021
- Anderson, Amanda
- Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e) Data Archive and Portal, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
The Effect of Wind-Turbine Wakes on Summertime US Midwest Atmospheric Wind Profiles as Observed with Ground-Based Doppler Lidar
journal, July 2013
- Rhodes, Michael E.; Lundquist, Julie K.
- Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Vol. 149, Issue 1
Application of a Perturbation Recycling Method in the Large-Eddy Simulation of a Mesoscale Convective Internal Boundary Layer
journal, August 2002
- Mayor, Shane D.; Spalart, Philippe R.; Tripoli, Gregory J.
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Implications of Stably Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer Turbulence on the Near-Wake Structure of Wind Turbines
journal, September 2014
- Bhaganagar, Kiran; Debnath, Mithu
- Energies, Vol. 7, Issue 9
A methodology for the design and testing of atmospheric boundary layer models for wind energy applications
journal, January 2017
- Sanz Rodrigo, Javier; Churchfield, Matthew; Kosovic, Branko
- Wind Energy Science, Vol. 2, Issue 1
Works referencing / citing this record:
LLNL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
ANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
- Kosovic, Branko
- microscale.anl.wrfles.neutral.ttu, 135 MB
LANL - WRF-LES - Neutral - TTU
dataset, August 2012
- Mirocha, J. D.; Churchfield, M. J.; Munoz-Esparza, D.
- Atmosphere to Electrons, 117 MB
NREL - SOWFA - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
LANL - Neutral - TTU
dataset, January 2018
- Kosovic, Branko
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; PNNL
Tower - TTU (SWiFT) Tower, All levels - Processed Data
dataset, August 2012
- Kosovic, Branko
- tower.z01.a0, 12 MB
A New Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme Based on LES: Application to the XPIA Campaign
journal, August 2019
- Senel, Cem Berk; Temel, Orkun; Porchetta, Sara
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 8
Large eddy simulations of floating offshore wind turbine wakes with coupled platform motion
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