scholarly journals Evaluation of Tip Loss Corrections to AD/NS Simulations of Wind Turbine Aerodynamic Performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (22) ◽  
pp. 4919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zhong ◽  
Tong Guang Wang ◽  
Wei Jun Zhu ◽  
Wen Zhong Shen

The Actuator Disc/Navier-Stokes (AD/NS) method has played a significant role in wind farm simulations. It is based on the assumption that the flow is azimuthally uniform in the rotor plane, and thus, requires a tip loss correction to take into account the effect of a finite number of blades. All existing tip loss corrections were originally proposed for the Blade-Element Momentum Theory (BEMT), and their implementations have to be changed when transplanted into the AD/NS method. The special focus of the present study is to investigate the performance of tip loss corrections combined in the AD/NS method. The study is conducted by using an axisymmetric AD/NS solver to simulate the flow past the experimental NREL Phase Ⅵ wind turbine and the virtual NREL 5MW wind turbine. Three different implementations of the widely used Glauert tip loss function F are discussed and evaluated. In addition, a newly developed tip loss correction is applied and compared with the above implementations. For both the small and large rotors under investigation, the three different implementations show a certain degree of difference to each other, although the relative difference in blade loads is generally no more than 4%. Their performance is roughly consistent with the standard Glauert correction employed in the BEMT, but they all tend to make the blade tip loads over-predicted. As an alternative method, the new tip loss correction shows superior performance in various flow conditions. A further investigation into the flow around and behind the rotors indicates that tip loss correction has a significant influence on the velocity development in the wake.

Wind ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-67
Author(s):  
Lun Ma ◽  
Pierre-Luc Delafin ◽  
Panagiotis Tsoutsanis ◽  
Antonis Antoniadis ◽  
Takafumi Nishino

A fully resolved (FR) NREL 5 MW turbine model is employed in two unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations (one with and one without the turbine tower) of a periodic atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to study the performance of an infinitely large wind farm. The results show that the power reduction due to the tower drag is about 5% under the assumption that the driving force of the ABL is unchanged. Two additional simulations using an actuator disc (AD) model are also conducted. The AD and FR results show nearly identical tower-induced reductions of the wind speed above the wind farm, supporting the argument that the AD model is sufficient to predict the wind farm blockage effect. We also investigate the feasibility of performing delayed-detached-eddy simulations (DDES) using the same FR turbine model and periodic domain setup. The results show complex turbulent flow characteristics within the farm, such as the interaction of large-scale hairpin-like vortices with smaller-scale blade-tip vortices. The computational cost of the DDES required for a given number of rotor revolutions is found to be similar to the corresponding URANS simulation, but the sampling period required to obtain meaningful time-averaged results seems much longer due to the existence of long-timescale fluctuations.


Author(s):  
Ryan Bezzina ◽  
Tonio Sant ◽  
Daniel Micallef

Abstract Significant research in the field of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) rotor aerodynamics has been documented in literature, including validated aerodynamic models based on Blade Element Momentum (BEM) and vortex methods, amongst others. However, the effects of platform induced motions on the turbine wake development downstream of the rotor plane or any research related to such areas is rather limited. The aims of this paper are two-fold. Initially, results from a CFD-based Actuator Disc (AD) code for a fixed (non-surging) rotor are compared with those obtained from a Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory, as well as previously conducted experimental work. Furthermore, the paper also emphasises the effect of tip speed ratio (TSR) on the rotor efficiency. This is followed by the analysis of floating wind turbines specifically in relation to surge displacement, through an AD technique implemented in CFD software, ANSYS Fluent®. The approach couples the Blade Element Theory (BET) for estimating rotating blade loads with a Navier Stokes solver to simulate the turbine wake. With regards to the floating wind turbine cases, the code was slightly altered such that BET was done in a transient manner i.e. following sinusoidal behaviour of waves. The AD simulations were performed for several conditions of TSRs and surge frequencies, at a constant amplitude. Similar to the fixed rotor analysis, significant parameters including thrust and power coefficients, amongst others, were studied against time and surge position. The floating platform data extracted from the AD approach was compared to the non-surging turbine data obtained, to display platform motion effects clearly. Data from hot wire near wake measurements and other simulation methods were also consulted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Jafari ◽  
N. Chokani ◽  
R. S. Abhari

The accurate modeling of the wind turbine wakes in complex terrain is required to accurately predict wake losses. In order to facilitate the routine use of computational fluid dynamics in the optimized micrositing of wind turbines within wind farms, an immersed wind turbine model is developed. This model is formulated to require grid resolutions that are comparable to that in microscale wind simulations. The model in connection with the k-ω turbulence model is embedded in a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes solver. The predictions of the model are compared to available wind tunnel experiments and to measurements at the full-scale Sexbierum wind farm. The good agreement between the predictions and measurements demonstrates that the novel immersed turbine model is suited for the optimized micrositing of wind turbines in complex terrain.


Author(s):  
Florian Danner ◽  
Christofer Kendall-Torry

Front rotor tip vortices impinging on a downstream blade row of an unducted propulsor induce distinct unsteadiness to blade loads with associated sound emissions. Since the region of unsteadiness is concentrated near the blade tips, reducing the rear rotor tip diameter represents a potential means for minimising interaction noise. A survey on the aeroacoustic effects resulting from a cropped rear rotor in combination with a front rotor blade tip modification is therefore presented. Analyses are based on data from computational fluid dynamics solutions with the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations and direct acoustic predictions. The evaluation of polar directivities, blade surface pressure disturbances and details of the unsteady flow field provide insight into the underlying phenomena. Results show that an arbitrary reduction of the rear rotor tip diameter does not necessarily decrease noise radiation and that winglet-like structures applied to the front rotor blade tips are capable of reducing acoustic emissions due to tip vortex-rotor interactions.


Author(s):  
Helge Aagaard Madsen ◽  
Niels N. So̸rensen ◽  
Scott Schreck

Yaw aerodynamics were computed with three codes of different complexity; 1) The 3D Navier Stokes solver Ellipsys3D using 5–8 million grid points; 2) HAWC3D which is a 3D actuator disc model coupled to a blade element model and using 20–30.000 grid points and 3) HAWC, a finite element based aeroelastic code using The Blade Element Momentum (BEM) model for the aerodynamics. Simulations were performed for two experiments. The first is the field rotor measurements on a 100 kW turbine at Risoe where local flow angle (LFA) and local relative velocity (LRV) at one radial station have been measured in a yaw angle interval of ±60°. The other experiment is the NREL measurements on a 10 m rotor in the NASA Ames 80 ft × 120 ft wind tunnel. LFA were measured at five radial stations and data for the 45° yaw case were analyzed. The measured changes in LFA caused by the yawing were used as the main parameter in the comparison with the models. In general a good correlation was found comparing the Ellipsys3D results with the LFA measured on the NREL rotor whereas a systematic underestimation of the amplitude in LFA as function of azimuth was observed for the two other models. This could possibly be ascribed to upwash influence on the measured LFA.


Author(s):  
Ali Behrouzifar ◽  
Masoud Darbandi ◽  
Gerry E. Schneider

In this paper, the actuator disk (AD) method is used to simulate the wind turbine performance and far-wake behavior. In this work, we incorporate the AD method with an axisymmetric full Navier-Stokes solver. In other words, the calculated AD load is suitably distributed on the disc to impose the aerodynamic forces acting on the blade. One important factor among various different factors, which affect the AD modeling prediction considerably, is the utilized grid thickness. In this work, we first choose the grid thickness recommended by the other researches and study the actual thickness of NREL 5MW wind turbine. Next, many other configurations are considered in our AD thickness modeling including a constant thickness and the actual thickness configurations. The latter one has a linear thickness distribution from 3.54 m at the root to 0.7 m at tip. The wind speed is ranged from 3 to 11 m/s consistent with the practical tests performed on the NREL 5MW wind turbine. We calculate the generated power for all the simulated configurations and their percentages of differences. The results show that the lowest difference is about 4.5% for a constant AD thickness of 0.2 m. Therefore, we conclude that the current AD model predicts results very close to the NREL design data. Additionally, this accurate prediction is similarly observed in the other ranges of wind turbine operational speeds.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6559
Author(s):  
Minh-Quang Tran ◽  
Yi-Chen Li ◽  
Chen-Yang Lan ◽  
Meng-Kun Liu

A novel concept of wind farm fault detection by monitoring the wind speed in the wake region is proposed in this study. A wind energy dissipation model was coupled with a computational fluid dynamics solver to simulate the fluid field of a wind turbine array, and the wind velocity and direction in the simulation were exported for identifying wind turbine faults. The 3D steady Navier–Stokes equations were solved by using the cell center finite volume method with a second order upwind scheme and a k−ε turbulence model. In addition, the wind energy dissipation model, derived from energy balance and Betz’s law, was added to the Navier–Stokes equations’ source term. The simulation results indicate that the wind speed distribution in the wake region contains significant information regarding multiple wind turbine faults. A feature selection algorithm specifically designed for the analysis of wind flow was proposed to reduce the number of features. This algorithm proved to have better performance than fuzzy entropy measures and recursive feature elimination methods under a limited number of features. As a result, faults in the wind turbine array could be detected and identified by machine learning algorithms.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Zhong Shen ◽  
Jens Nørkær Sørensen ◽  
Robert Mikkelsen

A new tip loss correction, initially developed for 1D Blade Element/Momentum (BEM) computations (submitted to Wind Energy), is now extended to 2D Actuator Disc/Navier–Stokes (AD/NS) computations and 3D Actuator Line/Navier–Stokes (AL/NS) computations. In the paper, it is shown that the tip loss correction is an important and necessary step for actuator/Navier–Stokes models. Computed results are compared to experimental data and to results from BEM computations using the new tip correction as well as the original one of Glauert (Aerodynamic Theory, Dover, New York, Chap. VII, Div. L, pp. 251–268). From the results it is concluded that the tip loss correction has been correctly employed in the Navier–Stokes based actuator models. The results also demonstrate that the difference between actuator line and actuator disk-based models may increase, especially for flows at a low tip speed ratio. Since the flows at a low tip speed ratio are too far to be considered as axisymmetrical flows, the actuator disk models that are based on axisymmetrical flow behaviors may not be valid.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Rogowski ◽  
Martin Otto Laver Hansen ◽  
Galih Bangga

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the H-Darrieus wind turbine aerodynamic performance, aerodynamic blade loads and velocity profiles downstream behind the rotor. The wind turbine model is based on the rotor designed by McDonnell Aircraft Company. The model proposed here consists of three fixed straight blades; in the future this model is planned to be develop with controlled blades. The study was conducted using the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach with the k-ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The numerical two-dimensional model was verified using two other independent aerodynamic approaches: the vortex model developed in Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the extended version of the CFD code FLOWer at the University of Stuttgart (USTUTT). All utilized numerical codes gave similar result of the instantaneous aerodynamic blade loads. In addition, steady-state calculations for the applied airfoils were also made using the same numerical model as for the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) to obtain lift and drag coefficients. The obtained values of lift and drag force coefficients, for a Reynolds number of 2.9 million, agree with the predictions of the experiment and XFoil over a wide range of angle of attack. The maximum rotor power coefficients are obtained at 0.5, which makes this impeller attractive from the point of view of further research. This work also addresses the issue of determining the aerodynamic performance of the rotor with various 4-digit NACA airfoils. The effect of two airfoil parameters, maximum airfoil thickness and maximum camber, on aerodynamic rotor performance is investigated. Research has shown that if this rotor were to work with fixed blades it is recommended to use the NACA 1418 airfoil instead of the original NACA 0018.


2011 ◽  
Vol 217-218 ◽  
pp. 363-367
Author(s):  
Xu Dong Wang ◽  
Li Cun Wang ◽  
Xian Ming Zhang ◽  
Jun Feng

In the development of new large megawatt size wind turbines, aerodynamic and structural reserch is interesting and important for study wind turbine performace and boost the development of wind power. In this paper, the aerodynamic and aeroelastic characteristic of blades is investigated and presented based on Blade Element Momentum and Hamilton theory. Then the flexible characteristics of balde is researched with the aerodynamic and aeroelastic model of the rotor. The flapwise and edgewise displacements, velocities and accelerations of blade tip are simulated and plotted to validate the model which is presented in this paper. The results have very important significance to investigate the vibration and fatigue lifetime of the wind turbine blades.


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