Search Results (5)

During the expansion of a wind farm, the strategic placement of wind turbines can significantly improve wind energy utilization. This study investigates the evolution of wake turbulence in a wind farm after introducing smaller wind turbines within the gaps between larger ones, focusing on aspects such as wind speed, turbulence intensity, and turbulence integral length scale. The flow field conditions are described using parameters like turbulence critical length and power spectral density, as determined through wind tunnel experiments. In these experiments, a single large wind turbine model and nine smaller wind turbine models were used to create a small wind farm unit, and pressure distribution behind the wind turbines was measured under various operating conditions. The results indicate that downstream wind speed deficits intensify as the number of small wind turbines in operation increases. The impact of these smaller turbines varies with height, with a relatively minor effect on the upper blade tip and increasingly adverse effects as you move from the upper blade tip to the lower blade tip. Through an analysis of power spectral density, the contribution of vortex motion to wake turbulence kinetic energy is further quantified. In the far wake region, the number of small wind turbines has a relatively small impact on wind speed fluctuations. Full article

In the far-field wake of a ship, the intensity of the scattering of bubbles is relatively weak. In addition, the wake is relatively thin, and the hole phenomenon is prominent. Thus, it is difficult to detect the wake at a long distance. On this basis, this paper studies a broadband 1–3 high-performance composite transceiver sub-array for the improved detection of a ship’s far wake flow field. The content includes frequency characteristics, transmission performance, power tolerance, the beam width of the transmitting array, and the frequency characteristics, reception performance, and beam width of the receiving array. The frequency bandwidth of the transmission array developed in this paper can reach a value of 180 kHz (the center frequency is 390 kHz). The maximum sound source level can reach a value of 228 dB. In the same frequency band, the sensitivity of the receiving array can reach a value of 184 dB, and the fluctuation is less than 5 dB. Compared with the narrowband 1–3 composite array of the same size, the acoustic performance of this sub-array has obvious advantages. Finally, to improve the effective sound path (before the first interface reflection of the sound wave) of the emitted sound wave in the ship’s far-field wake, combined with the speed of the moving carrier and the wide-band detection method of the ship’s wake, the configuration method of the detection array for the width and direction of the ship’s far-field wake is proposed. The results of this research have an important reference value for the research on broadband 1–3 high-performance composite arrays and their application in the far-field wake detection of ships. Full article

Intra-array wake meandering increases fatigue loading in downstream turbines and decreases farm total power output. In the case of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs), the motions of the floating substructure could have a non-neglectable contribution to wake meandering dynamics. This research experientially analyses the influence of imposed motions on the far-wake meandering of a FOWT. The study considers a 1:500 scaled porous disc representation of the 2 MW FLOATGEN system (BW Ideol) located off the coast of Le Croisic, France. A representative marine neutral atmospheric boundary layer is generated in a wind tunnel whilst monochromic and multi-frequency content three degrees of freedom (surge, heave, pitch) motion is imposed on the model tower. The stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (S-PIV) is then utilised to measure velocity vectors at a cross-section located at 8.125 D downstream of the model. No significant effect on the far-wake recovery in the velocity, turbulence and turbulent kinetic energy distribution is observed. However, the frequency characteristics of the imposed motions were observed in the far-wake meandering spectral content and streamwise characteristics of far-wake, such as normalised available power. While the frequency spectrum of the vertical oscillations showed more sensitivity to the three degrees of freedom (3DoF) imposed motion in all frequency ranges, the lateral oscillation was sensitive for the reduced frequency above 0.15. The monochromic motions with a reduced frequency of less than 0.15 also did not influence the far-wake centre distribution in both lateral and vertical directions. Regardless of reduced frequency, imposed motions show a strong effect on average power, in which the harmonic signature can distinguish in far-wake memory. This study provides an investigation, which its result could be beneficial to developing and examining wake models for offshore wind turbines, with a particular focus on the influence of FOWTs motions. Full article

Wake meandering disturbs the stability of the far wake field and thus increases the fatigue loads of downstream wind turbines. A deep understanding of this phenomenon under atmospheric boundary layers and its relation to the structural loads helps to better model the dynamic wake and alleviate adverse effects. A large eddy simulation and an actuator line model are introduced in the present work to simulate the wake field and aerodynamic loads of wind turbines with different longitudinal spacings. By temporal filtering and the gaussian fitting method, the wake center and edge are precisely defined, and the dynamic wake characteristics, including the wake width, oscillation amplitude, and frequency, are described based on the statistical data of the simulated flow field. Results reveal that the wake meandering is caused by both large-scale atmospheric structure and the unstable vortex shed from the rotor because two distinct meandering frequency ranges are detected. As the atmosphere instability increases, the former becomes the dominant inducing factor of the meandering movements. Further, the analysis of the correlation between the inflow characteristics and the wake deflection shows that the Taylor hypothesis remains valid within a distance of over a thousand meters under both neutral and convective boundary layers, proving the feasibility of using this hypothesis for wake evolution prediction. In addition, our study shows that the fluctuation of blade root moment and yaw moment is significantly intensified by the meandering wake, with their standard deviation is augmenting by over two times under both atmospheric conditions. The power spectrum illustrates that the component with rotor rotation frequency of the former is sensible to the wake effect, but for the latter, the power spectrum density of all frequencies is increased under the meandering wake. These indicate that the fatigue loads will be underestimated without considering the wake meandering effect. Moreover, the high correlation between the wake deflection and yaw moment implies that we can predict yaw moment based on the incoming flow information with high accuracy. Full article

In this study, horizontally periodic large eddy simulations (LES) are utilized to study turbulent atmospheric boundary-layer flow over wind turbines in the far-downstream portion of a large wind farm where the wakes have merged and the flow is fully developed. In an attempt to increase power generation by enhancing the mean kinetic energy (MKE) entrainment to the wind turbines, hypothetical synthetic forcing is applied to the flow at the turbine rotor locations. The synthetic forcing is not meant to represent any existing devices or control schemes, but rather acts as a proof of concept to inform future designs. The turbines are modeled using traditional actuator disks, and the unconventional synthetic forcing is applied in the vertical direction with the magnitude and direction dependent on the instantaneous velocity fluctuation at the rotor disk; in one set of LES meant to enhance the vertical entrainment of MKE, a downward force is prescribed in conjunction with a positive axial velocity fluctuation, whereas a negative axial velocity fluctuation results in an upward force. The magnitude of the forcing is proportional to the instantaneous thrust force with prefactors ranging from 0.1 to 1. The synthetic vertical forcing is found to have a significant effect on the power generated by the wind farm. Consistent with previous findings, the MKE flux to the level of the turbines is found to vary along with the total power produced by the wind turbine array. The reverse strategy of downward forcing of slow axial velocity flow is found to have almost no effect on the power output or entrainment. Several of the scenarios tested, e.g., where the vertical force is of similar magnitude to the horizontal thrust, would be very difficult to implement in practice, but the simulations serve the purpose of identifying trends and bounds on possible power increases from flow modifications through action at the turbine rotor. Full article