Verification of induction zone models for wind farm annual energy production estimation

A. Meyer Forsting*, O.S. Rathmann, M.P. van der Laan, N. Troldborg, B. Gribben, G. Hawkes, E. Branlard

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleResearchpeer-review

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    Abstract

    Fast engineering wake models are the backbone of wind farm annual energy production (AEP) estimators, whereas the addition of induction zone models in existing tools is a more recent response to rising concerns over wind farm blockage associated losses. Here, “blockage” describes the combined induction fields of all wind turbines inside a farm. Unlike the term might suggest, blockage not only reduces flow speeds, but also increases them; for instance along the outer edges of wind farms. Evaluating the overall impact on AEP of these gains and losses necessitates accurate wind farm induction models. Whilst engineering wake models are tuned to predict wind farm performance, existing induction zone models are all derived for accurately predicting the near field induction not the far field value—important for wind farm simulations. This paper presents the induction models implemented in the wind farm simulation tool PyWake, as well as results from novel analytical models and compares their far field predictions to RANS-AD simulations of different turbines. We demonstrate that when including blockage in AEP simulations, the downstream speed-ups need to be included to avoid an unrealistic bias toward AEP loss and that wake expansion significantly impacts induction at rated thrust levels.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number012023
    Book seriesJournal of Physics: Conference Series
    Volume1934
    Number of pages13
    ISSN1742-6596
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021
    EventWake Conference 2021 - Online event, Visby, Sweden
    Duration: 15 Jun 202117 Jun 2021

    Conference

    ConferenceWake Conference 2021
    LocationOnline event
    Country/TerritorySweden
    CityVisby
    Period15/06/202117/06/2021

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