A Numerical Study of Wind-Turbine Wakes for Three Atmospheric Stability Conditions

The effects of atmospheric stability on wind-turbine wakes are studied via large-eddy simulations. Three stability conditions are considered: stable, neutral, and unstable, with the same geostrophic wind speed aloft and the same Coriolis frequency. Both a single 5-MW turbine and a wind farm of five turbines are studied. The single-turbine wake is strongly correlated with stability, in terms of velocity deficit, turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) and temperature distribution. Because of the Coriolis effect, the wake shape deviates from a Gaussian distribution. For the wind-farm simulations, the separation of the core region and outer region is clear for the stable and neutral cases, but less distinct for the unstable case. The unstable case exhibits strong horizontal variations in wind speed. Local accelerations such as related to aisle jets are also observed, whose features depend on stability. The added TKE in the wind farm increases with stability. The highest power extraction and lowest power deficit are observed for the unstable case.

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