Coupling of mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting model to a high fidelity Large Eddy Simulation

Abstract

Numerical simulations of the flow in a wind farm in north Texas have been performed with WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting model) and our in-house LES code. Five nested domains are solved with WRF to model the meso-scale variability while retaining a resolution of 50 meters in the wind farm region. The computational domain of our in-house LES code is nested into the inner most domain of the WRF simulation from where we get the inlet boundary conditions. The outlet boundary conditions are radiative and at this stage the coupling between the two codes is one-way. The turbines in WRF are mimicked using a modified Fitch approach, while in our in-house LES we have used a rotating actuator disk combined with immersed boundaries for tower and nacelle. Numerical results agree well with meteorological data from the met tower. The power production obtained numerically on each turbine compares well with SCADA data with an index of agreement ranging between 80% to 90%. The power production from the numerical results of our in-house LES code is slightly closer to SCADA data than that of WRF.