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Recent improvements of actuator line-large-eddy simulation method for wind turbine wakes

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Abstract

In a large wind farm, the wakes of upstream and downstream wind turbines can interfere with each other, affecting the overall power output of the wind farm. To further improve the numerical accuracy of the turbine wake dynamics under atmosphere turbulence, this work proposes some improvements to the actuator line-large-eddy simulation (AL-LES) method. Based on the dynamic k-equation large-eddy simulation (LES), this method uses a precursor method to generate atmospheric inflow turbulence, models the tower and nacelle wakes, and improves the body force projection method based on an anisotropic Gaussian distribution function. For these three improvements, three wind tunnel experiments are used to validate the numerical accuracy of this method. The results show that the numerical results calculated in the far-wake region can reflect the characteristics of typical onshore and offshore wind conditions compared with the experimental results. After modeling the tower and nacelle wakes, the wake velocity distribution is consistent with the experimental result. The radial migration velocity of the tip vortex calculated by the improved blade body force distribution model is 0.32 m/s, which is about 6% different from the experimental value and improves the prediction accuracy of the tip vortex radial movement. The method proposed in this paper is very helpful for wind turbine wake dynamic analysis and wind farm power prediction.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Gansu Computing Center for providing computing resources.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hi-Tech Research for Wind Turbine Design, College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210001, China

    Zhiteng Gao & Tongguang Wang

  2. School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 201100, China

    Ye Li

  3. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Ye Li & Deshun Li

  4. College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211100, China

    Shitang Ke

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  1. Zhiteng Gao
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  2. Ye Li
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Correspondence to Ye Li.

Additional information

Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2019YFE0192600, 2017YFE0132000, and 2019YFB1503700) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51761135012 and 11872248)

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Gao, Z., Li, Y., Wang, T. et al. Recent improvements of actuator line-large-eddy simulation method for wind turbine wakes. Appl. Math. Mech.-Engl. Ed. 42, 511–526 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-021-2717-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-021-2717-8

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