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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A3: Wind, Wave and Tidal Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 November 2021) | Viewed by 8703

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jari Hämäläinen

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Guest Editor

Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT), Lappeenranta Campus, Skinnarilankatu 34, FI-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland
Interests: wind energy; wind turbines; computational fluid dynamics; numerical simulation; turbulence modeling; model-based optimization; industrial applications

Dr. Jordi Pallares

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Departament d'Enginyeria Mecànica, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43003 Tarragona, Spain
Interests: fluid mechanics; turbulence; transport phenomena

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a powerful tool to predict numerically liquid and gas flows in many industrial applications. Wind energy is a natural application of CFD where air flows around wind turbines and generates renewable energy by rotating the turbine blades.

Wind energy includes multiple scales of fluid flow phenomena, i.e., from the aerodynamics of turbine blades and wakes generated up to microclimate and atmospheric boundary layer weather conditions. Furthermore, different scales interact as atmospheric flows define wind conditions at a wind-farm scale and further down to a turbine scale.

CFD can be integrated with optimization algorithms in the search for optimal shape design or optimal control. Model-based optimization examples include, e.g., optimal design of blade geometry and micro-siting in complex terrain.

This Special Issue on “Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for Wind Turbines” focuses on turbine-scale numerical simulations and model-based optimizations, including (but not limited to) the following:

Development of efficient and accurate numerical methods
Development of turbulence modeling (e.g. RANS and LES methodologies)
Experimental validations
Numerical predictions of flow phenomena
Model-based optimizations

for

aerodynamics of wind turbine blades
fluid–structure interactions (FSI)
wind turbine wakes with interactions
interactions with complex terrain
efficiency of wind turbines
micro-siting of turbines

Prof. Dr. Jari Hämäläinen
Dr. Jordi Pallares
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Wind turbines
Computational fluid dynamics
Turbulence modelling
Numerical simulation
Model-based optimization

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5763 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influences of Geometrical Parameters of Upstream Deflector on Performance of a H-Type Vertical Axis Marine Current Turbine

by Donghai Zhou and Xiaojing Sun

Energies 2021, 14(14), 4087; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14144087 - 06 Jul 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1675

Abstract

Marine current power is a kind of renewable energy that has attracted increasing attention because of its abundant reserves, high predictability, and consistency. A marine current turbine is a large rotating device that converts the kinetic energy of the marine current into mechanical energy. As a straight-bladed vertical axis marine current turbine (VAMCT) has a square or rectangular cross-section, it can thus have a larger swept area than that of horizontal axis marine current turbines (HAMCT) for a given diameter, and also have good adaptability in shallow water where the turbine size is limited by both width and depth of a channel. However, the low energy utilization efficiency of the VAMCT is the main bottleneck that restricts its application. In this paper, two-dimensional numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effectiveness of an upstream deflector on improving performance of the straight-bladed (H-type) marine current turbine. The effects of various key geometrical parameters of the deflector including position, length, and installation angle on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the VAMCT were then systematically analyzed in order to explore the mechanism underlying the interaction between the deflector and rotor of a VAMCT. As a result, the optimal combination of geometrical parameters of the deflector by which the maximum energy utilization efficiency was achieved was a 13.37% increment compared to that of the original VAMCT. The results of this work show the feasibility of the deflector as a potential choice for improving the energy harvesting performance of a VAMCT with simple structure and easy implementation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for Wind Turbines)

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22 pages, 1525 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Large-Eddy Simulation of Wind Turbine Flows: A New Evaluation of Actuator Disk Models

by Tristan Revaz and Fernando Porté-Agel

Energies 2021, 14(13), 3745; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133745 - 22 Jun 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2225

Abstract

Large-eddy simulation (LES) with actuator models has become the state-of-the-art numerical tool to study the complex interaction between the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and wind turbines. In this paper, a new evaluation of actuator disk models (ADMs) for LES of wind turbine flows is presented. Several details of the implementation of such models are evaluated based on a test case studied experimentally. In contrast to other test cases used in previous similar studies, the present test case consists of a wind turbine immersed in a realistic turbulent boundary-layer flow, for which accurate data for the turbine, the flow, the thrust and the power are available. It is found that the projection of the forces generated by the turbine into the flow solver grid is crucial for rotor predictions, especially for the power, and less important for the wake flow prediction. In this context, the projection of the forces into the flow solver grid should be as accurate as possible, in order to conserve the consistency between the computed axial velocity and the projected axial force. Also, the projection of the force is found to be much more important in the rotor plane directions than in the streamwise direction. It is found that for the case of a wind turbine immersed in a realistic turbulent boundary-layer flow, the potential spurious numerical oscillations originating from sharp force projections are not harmful to the results. By comparing an advanced model which computes the non-uniform distribution of the turbine forces over the rotor with a simple model which assumes uniform effects of the turbine forces, it is found that both can lead to accurate results for the far wake flow and the thrust and power predictions. However, the comparison shows that the advanced model leads to better results for the near wake flow. In addition, it is found that the simple model overestimates the rotor velocity prediction in comparison to the advanced model. These elements are explained by the lack of local feedback between the axial velocity and the axial force in the simple model. By comparing simulations with and without including the effects of the nacelle and tower, it is found that the consideration of the nacelle and tower is relatively important both for the near wake and the power prediction, due to the shadow effects. The grid resolution is not found to be critical once a reasonable resolution is used, i.e., in the order of 10 grid points along each direction across the rotor. The comparison with the experimental data shows that an accurate prediction of the flow, thrust, and power is possible with a very reasonable computational cost. Overall, the results give important guidelines for the implementation of ADMs for LES. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for Wind Turbines)

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22 pages, 4626 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Varying VAWT Cluster Configuration and the Effect on Individual Rotor and Overall Cluster Performance

by Jeffrey E. Silva and Louis Angelo M. Danao

Energies 2021, 14(6), 1567; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14061567 - 12 Mar 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2435

Abstract

The effect of separation distance between turbines on overall cluster performance were simulated using computational fluid dynamics software and we found that at a distance equivalent to two rotors, there was an improvement of +8.06% in the average performance of the cluster compared to a single, isolated turbine. A very small improvement in performance was noted at the equivalent distance of 12 rotor diameters. The performances of three individual turbines in pyramid- and inverted pyramid-shaped vertical axis wind turbine clustered farm configurations with varying oblique angles at a fixed spacing of two equivalent rotor diameters were also investigated. The design experiment involves the simulation of test cases with oblique angles from 15° to 165° at an interval of 15° and the turbines were allowed to rotate through 18 full rotations. The results show that the left and right turbines increase in performance as the angle with respect to the streamline axis increases, with the exception of the 165° angle. The center turbine, meanwhile, attained its maximum performance at a 45° oblique angle. The maximum cluster performance was found to be in the configuration where the turbines were oriented in a line (i.e., side by side) and perpendicular to the free-stream wind velocity, exhibiting an overall performance improvement of 9.78% compared to the isolated turbine. Other array configurations show improvements ranging from 6.58% to 9.57% compared to the isolated turbine, except in the extreme cases of 15° and 165°, where a decrease in the cluster performance was noted due to blockage induced by the left and right turbines, and the center turbines, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations for Wind Turbines)

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