CFD for Wind Turbines Analysis

Accurate prediction of the wind turbine wake is important for the performance analysis of the turbine as well as the optimal positioning of wind turbines within tightly-spaced wind farms. In this work CFD is used to explore the breakdown of the wake downstream of the blades and assess the capability of CFD in predicting the correct physical mechanism of the breakdown.

Method

The solver has so far been validated for several cases including the NREL Annex XX experiments as well as the pressure and PIV data of the MEXICO project.

 

Recent Results

The wake is resolved on a fine mesh able to capture the vortices up to 8 radii downstream the blades. At a wind speed of 15m/s, the main frequency is the blade rotation (21. 4Hz) and is present in the CFD signals for up to 4 radii downstream the rotor plane, where the vortex cores fall on a perfect spiral. Between 4 and 5 radii downstream, a sinusoidal behaviour is observed, due to a higher frequency content, which indicates the onset of instabilities. This instability results in vortex pairing, and can be observed in the vorticity contours.

Publications

Journals

  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl and G. Barakos, Implementation of All-Mach Roe-type Schemes in Fully Implicit CFD Solvers - Demonstration for Wind Turbine Flows, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, vol. 73, num. 8, p 693-728, 2013.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos, S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, CFD Analysis of the Wake of the MEXICO Wind Turbine, Wind Energy, Accepted for publication March 2014.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos, S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, Understanding Wind Turbine Wake Breakdown using CFD, AIAA Journal, Accepted May 2014.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos, S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, Aeroelastic Analysis of Wind Turbines using a Tightly Coupled CFD-CSD Method, Journal of Fluids and Structures, Accepted July 2014.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl and G. Barakos, Breakdown of the Swirling Wake Behind a Wind Turbine, ERFCOFTAC Bulletin, Bulletin 98, March 2014.

 Conference Proceedings

  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, CFD and Aeroelastic Analysis of the MEXICO Wind Turbine, The Science of Making Torque from Wind, Oldenburg, Germany, October 9-11, 2012.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos, S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, Understanding Wind Turbine Wake Breakdown using CFD, 9th PhD Seminar on Wind Energy in Europe, Uppsala University Campus Gotland, Sweden, September 18-20, 2013.
  • M. Carrion, M. Woodgate, R. Steijl and G. Barakos, Understanding Wind Turbine Wake Breakdown using CFD, AHS 70th Annual Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 20-22, 2014.
  • M. Carrion, M.Woodgate, R. Steijl, G. Barakos, S. Gomez-Iradi and X. Munduate, Coupled CFD/CSD Method for Wind Turbines, 6th European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics (ECFD VI), Barcelona, Spain, July 20-25, 2014.

Contact

G. Barakos - Professor, gbarakos@liverpool.ac.uk

R. Steijl - Lecturer, rsteijl@liverpool.ac.uk

M Carrion - PhD student, mcarrion@liverpool.ac.uk

CFD Laboratory, School of Engineering, University of Liverpool

Walker Building, The Quadrangle

Liverpool L69 3GH, United Kingdom

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