The effect of parked wind turbines on wind flow and turbulence over a complex terrain

Abstract

Wind‐tunnel experiments were performed to study the wind characteristics on a parked wind turbine downwind of three types of hill and over a flat terrain. The focus of the study is on comparing wind characteristics on (a) a wind turbine standing alone and (b) this same type of wind turbine embedded in a wind farm. Particular emphasis is placed on the hill size and shape and the distance between the hill and the wind farm. The hill and wind‐farm models were subjected to an atmospheric boundary layer simulation to create realistic atmospheric conditions. Flow and turbulence were analyzed based on the measured mean flow velocity, Reynolds shear stress, turbulence intensity, and the power spectral density of velocity fluctuations. The experimental results reveal similar trends concerning (a) the wind characteristics obtained on a parked wind turbine embedded in a wind farm downwind of hills of various sizes and shapes and (b) the wind characteristics on this same type of parked wind turbine standing alone in the same position downwind of the same hills. In particular, the discrepancies in the mean flow velocity and turbulence intensity between these test cases are mostly below 5%, thus indicating that a complex terrain clearly has a dominant effect on the wind characteristics, while the effects of parked wind turbines on the wind characteristics are negligible. This important finding indicates that the structural loading of parked wind turbines situated on a complex terrain may be well calculated using the same procedures both for wind turbines standing alone and wind turbines embedded in wind farms if they are both placed at the same distance downwind of the same hills.

How spatial policies can leverage energy transitions − Finding Pareto-optimal solutions for wind turbine locations with evolutionary multi-objective optimization

“…The definition of this grid is somewhat arbitrary and makes the allocation of wind turbines slightly inflexible. However, it has been shown that particularly in complex terrain the wind characteristics of a stand-alone and a parked turbine are quite similar (Kozmar et al, 2021). Thus, selecting the location of wind turbines based on a continuous definition of space could improve the allocation process, but may also add substantial complexity to the optimization problem.…”

The characteristics of weather-related wind load parameters and wind power quality over the Dabanchen strong gale area

“…Furthermore, the turbulence calculation accuracy is restricted by the wind tunnel size. Thus, the collection of necessary onsite observational data should be prioritized (An et al,2019;Kozmar et al, 2021). However, to our knowledge, little research on weatherrelated wind loading parameters under strong unstable convective regimes has been performed.…”

“…Considering the importance of the turbulence integral scale (abbreviated TIS) and the power spectral density (abbreviated PSD) of fluctuating winds under the condition of abnormal strong winds and their effects on gust factor estimation and turbulence kinetic energy, which are important considerations for various structural wind-resistance designs (Davenport, 1961;Davenport and Sparling, 1992;Zhou et al, 2017;Kozmar et al,2021;Liu et al,2020;ASCE/SEI 7-16, 2017;AIJ, 2019), we examine special cases to characterize the distributions of these parameters compared to international standard codes and typhoon-affected areas in this work. Then, we qualitatively analyze the reliability and application conditions of these parameters.…”

The characteristics of weather-related wind load parameters and wind 2 power quality over the Dabanchen strong gale area

“…Considering the importance of the turbulence integral scale (abbreviated TIS) and the power spectral density (abbreviated PSD) of fluctuating winds under the condition of abnormal strong winds and their effects on gust factor estimation and turbulence kinetic energy, which are important considerations for various structural wind-resistance designs (Davenport, 1961;Davenport and Sparling, 1992;Zhou et al, 2017;Kozmar et al,2021;Liu et al,2020;ASCE/SEI 7-16, 2017;AIJ, 2019), we examine special cases to characterize the distributions of these parameters compared to international standard codes and typhoon-affected areas in this work.…”