Next Article in Journal
Design and Simulation Study of an Intelligent Electric Drive Wheel with Integrated Transmission System and Load-Sensing Unit
Previous Article in Journal
Coordinated Control of Standalone Brushless Doubly-Fed Induction Generator for Load Disturbance Suppression in Microgrid
 
 
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

A Three-Dimensional Analytical Model for Wind Turbine Wakes from near to Far Field: Incorporating Atmospheric Stability Effects

Science and Technology Research Institute, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 101199, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2026, 19(2), 467; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020467 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 8 December 2025 / Revised: 13 January 2026 / Accepted: 15 January 2026 / Published: 17 January 2026
(This article belongs to the Section A3: Wind, Wave and Tidal Energy)

Abstract

In response to the critical demand for improved characterization of atmospheric stability effects in wind turbine wake prediction, this study proposes and systematically validates a new analytical wake model that incorporates atmospheric stability effects. In recent years, research on wake models with atmospheric stability effects has primarily followed two approaches: incorporating stability through high-fidelity numerical simulations or modifying classical analytical wake models. While the former offers clear mechanical insights, it incurs high computational costs, whereas the latter improves efficiency yet often suffers from near-wake prediction biases under stable stratification, lacks a unified framework covering the entire wake region, and relies heavily on case-specific calibration of key parameters. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces a stability-dependent turbulence expansion term with a square of a cosine function and the stability sign parameter, enabling the model to dynamically respond to varying atmospheric conditions and overcome the reliance of traditional models on neutral atmospheric assumptions. It achieves physically consistent descriptions of turbulence suppression under stable conditions and convective enhancement under unstable conditions. A newly developed far-field decay function effectively coordinates near-wake and far-wake evolution, maintaining computational efficiency while significantly improving prediction accuracy under complex stability conditions. The Present model has been validated against field measurements from the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility and the Alsvik wind farm, demonstrating superior performance in predicting wake velocity distributions on both vertical and horizontal planes. It also exhibits strong adaptability under neutral, stable, and unstable atmospheric conditions. This proposed framework provides a reliable tool for wind turbine layout optimization and power output forecasting under realistic atmospheric stability conditions.
Keywords: wind turbine; wake; velocity deficit; analytical wake model; atmospheric stability wind turbine; wake; velocity deficit; analytical wake model; atmospheric stability

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Chen, X.; Zhang, H.; Zhang, Z.; Shao, Z.; Ying, R.; Liu, X. A Three-Dimensional Analytical Model for Wind Turbine Wakes from near to Far Field: Incorporating Atmospheric Stability Effects. Energies 2026, 19, 467. https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020467

AMA Style

Chen X, Zhang H, Zhang Z, Shao Z, Ying R, Liu X. A Three-Dimensional Analytical Model for Wind Turbine Wakes from near to Far Field: Incorporating Atmospheric Stability Effects. Energies. 2026; 19(2):467. https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020467

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chen, Xiangyan, Hao Zhang, Ziliang Zhang, Zhiyong Shao, Rui Ying, and Xiangyin Liu. 2026. "A Three-Dimensional Analytical Model for Wind Turbine Wakes from near to Far Field: Incorporating Atmospheric Stability Effects" Energies 19, no. 2: 467. https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020467

APA Style

Chen, X., Zhang, H., Zhang, Z., Shao, Z., Ying, R., & Liu, X. (2026). A Three-Dimensional Analytical Model for Wind Turbine Wakes from near to Far Field: Incorporating Atmospheric Stability Effects. Energies, 19(2), 467. https://doi.org/10.3390/en19020467

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Article metric data becomes available approximately 24 hours after publication online.
Back to TopTop