CFD for Wind Turbine Simulations

Abstract

The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for three-dimensional wind turbine rotor simulations has become recently more and more popular in wind energy research. Also, in the industry, this tool has started to play a crucial role in the analysis of blade or rotor aerodynamics. In this chapter, the numerical methods to simulate blade or rotor performances are illustrated. In particular, an overview of the state of the art in terms of simulation setup, the corresponding grid requirements, and the proper turbulence models is provided. Moreover, a considerable number of verification and validation cases for both experimental and numerical reference wind turbine models are presented. Finally, the added value of the full rotor simulations as kernel for the development of reduced order methods for load simulations is illustrated by means of extensive literature sources.