Wake behavior and control: Comparison of LES simulations and wind tunnel measurements

Abstract

This paper applies a large-eddy actuator line approach to the simulation of wind turbine wakes. In addition to normal operating conditions, a specific focus of the paper is on wake manipulation, which is performed here by derating, yaw misalignment and cyclic pitching of the blades. With the purpose of clarifying the ability of LES methods to represent conditions that are relevant for wind farm control, numerical simulations are compared to experimental observations obtained in a boundary layer wind tunnel with scaled wind turbine models. Results indicate a good overall matching of simulations with experiments. Low-turbulence test cases appear to be more challenging than moderate- and high-turbulence ones due to the need for denser grids to limit numerical diffusion and accurately resolve tip-shed vortices in the near-wake region.