Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-26
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-26
13 Mar 2023
 | 13 Mar 2023
Status: a revised version of this preprint was accepted for the journal WES and is expected to appear here in due course.

Difference in load predictions obtained with effective turbulence vs. a dynamic wake meandering modeling approach

Paula Doubrawa, Kelsey Shaler, and Jason Jonkman

Abstract. According to the international standard for wind turbine design, the effects of wind turbine wakes on structural loads can be considered in two ways: (1) by augmenting the ambient turbulence levels with the effective turbulence model (EFF) and then calculating the resulting loads and (2) by performing dynamic wake meandering (DWM) simulations, which compute wake effects and loads for all turbines in a farm at once. There is no definitive answer in scientific literature as to the consequences of choosing one model over the other, but the two approaches are unarguably very different. The work presented here expounds on these differences and investigates to what extent they affect the simulated structural loads. We consider an idealized 4x4 rectangular array of National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5 MW wind turbines with a spacing of 5 by 8 rotor diameters, and three wind speed scenarios at high ambient turbulence. Load simulations are performed in OpenFAST with EFF and in FAST.Farm with the DWM implementation. We compare ambient turbulence, wind farm turbulence, and loads between both approaches. When omnidirectional results are compared, EFF wind farm turbulence intensity is consistently higher by 0.2 % (above rated wind speed) to 2.7 % (below rated wind speed). However, for certain wind directions, the EFF turbulence can be lower than FAST.Farm by almost 9 %. Wind speeds within the farm were found to differ by up to 3 m s-1 due to the lack of wake deficits in the EFF approach, leading to longer tails toward low values in the FAST.Farm mean load distributions. Consistent with the turbulence results, the median EFF load standard deviations are also consistently higher, by a maximum of 20 % and 17 % for blade-root out-of-plane and tower base fore-aft moments, respectively.

Paula Doubrawa et al.

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • AC1: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Paula Doubrawa, 11 Apr 2023
  • RC1: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Apr 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Paula Doubrawa, 19 Jul 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Anonymous Referee #2, 27 Jun 2023
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Paula Doubrawa, 21 Jul 2023

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • AC1: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Paula Doubrawa, 11 Apr 2023
  • RC1: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Anonymous Referee #1, 21 Apr 2023
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Paula Doubrawa, 19 Jul 2023
  • RC2: 'Comment on wes-2023-26', Anonymous Referee #2, 27 Jun 2023
    • AC3: 'Reply on RC2', Paula Doubrawa, 21 Jul 2023

Paula Doubrawa et al.

Paula Doubrawa et al.

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Short summary
Wind turbines are designed to withstand any wind conditions they might encounter. This includes high turbulence flow fields found within wind farms due to the presence of the wind turbines themselves. The international standard allows for two ways to account for wind farm turbulence in the design process. We compared both ways and found large differences between. To avoid overdesigning components and enable site-specific design, we suggest definitively moving being the more simplified method.