Study of the near wake of a wind turbine in ABL flow using the actuator line method

Abstract

The main goal of this study is the comparison of the near wake generated by an actuator line immersed in three different flows. A hybrid RANS-LES method is used to analyze the behaviour of the near wake in an atmospheric boundary layer. Then these results are compared to two idealized flow situations commonly found in the literature, such as irrotational flow and homogenous isotropic turbulence. In order to achieve this, a validation of the homogenous isotropic turbulence is conducted. The simulation results and the generated turbulence are compared with respect to the turbulence intensity and the integral length scale of the flow field. Finally to visualise the impact of the different flow conditions on the near wake of a wind turbine, the mean velocities, Reynolds stresses and energy spectra are compared. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.