Large-eddy simulation of a wind-turbine array subjected to active yaw control

Abstract

This study validates large-eddy simulation (LES) for predicting the flow through a wind turbine array subjected to active yaw control. The wind turbine array consists of three miniature wind turbines operated in both non-yawed and yawed configurations under full-wake and partial-wake conditions, for which wind tunnel flow measurements are available. The turbine-induced forces are parametrised by three different models: the standard actuator disk model (ADM-std), the blade element actuator disk model (ADM-BE), also referred to as the rotational actuator disk model (ADM-R), and the actuator line model (ALM). The time-averaged turbine power outputs and the profiles of the wake flow statistics (normalised streamwise mean velocity and streamwise turbulence intensity) obtained from the simulations using the ADM-std, the ADM-BE and the ALM are compared with experimental results. We find that simulations using the ADM-BE and ALM yield flow statistics that are in good agreement with the wind-tunnel measurements for all the studied configurations. In contrast, the results from LES with the ADM-std show discrepancies with the measurements obtained under yawed and/or partial-wake conditions. These errors are due to the fact that the ADM-std assumes a uniform thrust force, thus failing to capture the inherently inhomogeneous distribution of the turbine-induced forces under partial wake conditions. In terms of power prediction, we find that LES using the ADM-BE yields better power predictions than the ADM-std and the ALM in the cases considered in this study. As a result, we conclude that LES using the ADM-BE provides a good balance of accuracy and computational cost for simulations of the flow through wind farms subjected to AYC.