In this paper, the impact of atmospheric stability on a wind turbine wake is studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental approach is based on full-scale (nacelle based) pulsed lidar measurements of the wake flow field of a stall-regulated 500 kW turbine at the DTU Wind Energy, Risø campus test site. Wake measurements are averaged within a mean wind speed bin of 1 m s 1 and classified according to atmospheric stability using three different metrics: the Obukhov length, the Bulk-Richardson number and the Froude number. Three test cases are subsequently defined covering various atmospheric conditions. Simulations are carried out using large eddy simulation and actuator disk rotor modeling. The turbulence properties of the incoming wind are adapted to the thermal stratification using a newly developed spectral tensor model that includes buoyancy effects. Discrepancies are discussed, as basis for future model development and improvement. Finally, the impact of atmospheric stability on large-scale and small-scale wake flow characteristics is presently investigated.
In the present paper, single-wake dynamics have been studied both experimentally and numerically. The use of pulsed lidar measurements allows for validation of basic dynamic wake meandering modeling assumptions. Wake center tracking is used to estimate the wake advection velocity experimentally and to obtain an estimate of the wake expansion in a fixed frame of reference. A comparison shows good agreement between the measured average expansion and the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) large eddy simulation-actuator line computations. Frandsen's expansion model seems to predict the wake expansion fairly well in the far wake but lacks accuracy in the outer region of the near wake. An empirical relationship, relating maximum wake induction and wake advection velocity, is derived and linked to the characteristics of a spherical vortex structure. Furthermore, a new empirical model for single-wake expansion is proposed based on an initial wake expansion in the pressure-driven flow regime and a spatial gradient computed from the large-scale lateral velocities, and thus inspired by the basic assumption behind the dynamic wake meandering model.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.