Actuator Line Simulation of Wake of Wind Turbine Operating in Turbulent Inflow

The wake of a wind turbine operating in an atmospheric turbulent inflow without mean shear is simulated using a numerical method, which combines large eddy simulations with an actuator line technique. A turbulent inflow with the same spectral characteristics as the atmosphere is produced by introducing time varying body forces in a plane upstream the rotor.

The results of the simulation are compared to those obtained on a wind turbine in uniform inflow at the same mean wind speed and from this comparison a number of features of the influence of inflow turbulence on wake dynamics are deduced. Furthermore, the results are used to verify the validity of some of the basic assumptions employed in simpler engineering models and to study their bounds of application.

The large amount of data from the wake simulation can easily be used in simple engineering methods to model a wind turbine operating in the wake of an upstream turbine