Physics of Fluids - Publications

Distinct Turbulent Regions in the Wake of a Wind Turbine and Their Inflow-Dependent Locations: The Creation of a Wake Map

Open Access
Energies 13(2), 5392 (2020)

Authors

	Ingrid Neunaber
	Michael Hölling
	Richard Stevens
	Gerard Schepers
	Joachim Peinke

BibTeΧ

@Article{en13205392,
AUTHOR = {Neunaber, Ingrid and Hölling, Michael and Stevens, Richard J. A. M. and Schepers, Gerard and Peinke, Joachim},
TITLE = {Distinct Turbulent Regions in the Wake of a Wind Turbine and Their Inflow-Dependent Locations: The Creation of a Wake Map},
JOURNAL = {Energies},
VOLUME = {13},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {20},
ARTICLE-NUMBER = {5392},
URL = {https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/20/5392},
ISSN = {1996-1073},
ABSTRACT = {Wind turbines are usually clustered in wind farms which causes the downstream turbines to operate in the turbulent wakes of upstream turbines. As turbulence is directly related to increased fatigue loads, knowledge of the turbulence in the wake and its evolution are important. Therefore, the main objective of this study is a comprehensive exploration of the turbulence evolution in the wind turbine’s wake to identify characteristic turbulence regions. For this, we present an experimental study of three model wind turbine wake scenarios that were scanned with hot-wire anemometry with a very high downstream resolution. The model wind turbine was exposed to three inflows: laminar inflow as a reference case, a central wind turbine wake, and half of the wake of an upstream turbine. A detailed turbulence analysis reveals four downstream turbulence regions by means of the mean velocity, variance, turbulence intensity, energy spectra, integral and Taylor length scales, and the Castaing parameter that indicates the intermittency, or gustiness, of turbulence. In addition, a wake core with features of homogeneous isotropic turbulence and a ring of high intermittency surrounding the wake can be identified. The results are important for turbulence modeling in wakes and optimization of wind farm wake control.},
DOI = {10.3390/en13205392}
}