Investigation of the effect of inflow turbulence on vertical axis wind turbine wakes

Wake Conference 2017

Chatelain, P.^1 ; Duponcheel, M.^1 ; Zeoli, S.^2 ; Buffin, S.^1 ; Caprace, D.-G.^1 ; Winckelmans, G.^1 ; Bricteux, L.^1

Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve

1348, Belgium^1

Mechanical Engineering Department, Université de Mons, Mons

7000, Belgium^2

关键词: Fine resolution large Eddy simulation;    Inflow turbulence;    Operating condition;    Shedding mechanisms;    Turbulence fields;    Turbulence intensity;    Turbulence statistics;    Vertical axis wind turbines;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/854/1/012011/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/854/1/012011

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The aerodynamics of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) is inherently unsteady, which leads to vorticity shedding mechanisms due to both the lift distribution along the blade and its time evolution. In this paper, we perform large-scale, fine-resolution Large Eddy Simulations of the flow past Vertical Axis Wind Turbines by means of a state-of-the-art Vortex Particle-Mesh (VPM) method combined with immersed lifting lines. Inflow turbulence with a prescribed turbulence intensity (TI) is injected at the inlet of the simulation either from a precomputed synthetic turbulence field obtained using the Mann algorithm [1] or generated on the-fly using time-correlated synthetic velocity planes. The wake of a standard, medium-solidity, H-shaped machine is simulated for several TI levels. The complex wake development is captured in details and over long distances: from the blades to the near wake coherent vortices, then through the transitional ones to the fully developed turbulent far wake. Mean flow and turbulence statistics are computed over more than 10 diameters downstream of the machine. The sensitivity of the wake topology and decay to the TI and to the operating conditions is then assessed.