Spectral tensor parameters for wind turbine load modeling from forested and agricultural landscapes

A velocity spectral tensor model was evaluated from the single-point measurements of wind speed. The model contains three parameters representing the dissipation rate of specific turbulent kinetic energy, a turbulence length scale and the turbulence anisotropy. Sonic anemometer measurements taken over a forested and an agricultural landscape were used to calculate the model parameters for neutral, slightly stable and slightly unstable atmospheric conditions for a selected wind speed interval. The dissipation rate above the forest was nine times that at the agricultural site. No significant differences were observed in the turbulence length scales between the forested and agricultural areas. Only a small difference was observed in the turbulence anisotropy at the two sites, except near the surface, where the forest turbulence was more isotropic. The turbulence anisotropy remained more or less constant with height at the forest site, whereas the turbulence became more isotropic with height for the agricultural site. Using the three parameters as inputs, we quantified the performance of the model in coherence predictions for vertical separations. The model coherence of all the three velocity components was overestimated for the analyzed stability classes at both sites. As expected from the model approximations, the model performed better at both sites for neutral stability than slightly stable and unstable conditions. The model prediction of coherence of the along-wind and vertical components was better than that of the cross-wind component. No significant difference was found between the performance of the model at the forested and the agricultural areas. © 2014 The Authors. Wind Energy published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.