An Empirical Study of Two Numerical Models for Wind Resource Simulation in Complex Terrain

The choice of wind measured data and numerical simulation method has an important impact on the results of wind resource assessment. This paper will take a wind farm, in Yangjiang City, Guangdong Province, for an example and discuss the simulation accuracy by linear model WAsP and nonlinear model based on simulation software Fluent. First of all, contrast mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) about simulated wind speed under four kinds of wind conditions, which are simulated by four sets of wind data in WAsP, and then select the wind data with the smallest . Then, using WAsP and CFD method simulates wind field by the optimal wind data. Compare simulated wind speed and annual generation capacity. In this paper, the simulated wind speed in the simulation model CFD based on Fluent is closer to the measured wind speed. The MAPE of wind speed and annual generation capacity by CFD model is smaller than that by WAsP. Therefore, for the wind resource assessment in the complex terrain, the nonlinear model CFD based on Fluent will be qualified to response the relationship between wind resource and terrain, simulation accuracy, and has higher simulation accuracy than the linear model WAsP.