Wind farm performance in conventionally neutral atmospheric boundary layers with varying inversion strengths

The Science of Making Torque from Wind 2014

Allaerts, Dries^1 ; Meyers, Johan^1

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Celestijnenlaan 300, BE 3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium^1

关键词: Boundary layer growth;    Capping inversion;    Entrainment rates;    Inversion strength;    Power out put;    Turbulent transports;    Wind farm;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012114/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/524/1/012114

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

In this study we consider large wind farms in a conventionally neutral atmospheric boundary layer. In large wind farms the energy extracted by the turbines is dominated by downward vertical turbulent transport of kinetic energy from the airflow above the farm. However, atmospheric boundary layers are almost always capped by an inversion layer which slows down the entrainment rate and counteracts boundary layer growth. In a suite of large eddy simulations the effect of the strength of the capping inversion on the boundary layer and on the performance of a large wind farm is investigated. For simulations with and without wind turbines the results indicate that the boundary layer growth is effectively limited by the capping inversion and that the entrainment rate depends strongly on the inversion strength. The power output of wind farms is shown to decrease for increasing inversions.