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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-517-2

5-6th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
May, 26–28, 2021 , Virtual

INTEGRATED NUMERICAL APPROACH FOR WIND ENERGY AERODYNAMICS AND ENERGY OUTPUT ESTIMATION

Get access (open in a dialog) pages 563-572
DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2021.fmi.032455

Abstract

The wind energy source is playing a leading role in the worldwide power generation, with a high yearly growth of installed wind power capacity and a continuous technological development to reduce the cost of energy and to promote a higher penetration of wind energy. In this scenario, a better comprehension of the fluid dynamics becomes necessary to increase the wind turbines efficiency and related energy output in both small and large size devices. For this purpose, the use of experimental campaigns in wind tunnel are still largely used, requiring important investment and limiting the tested operating conditions. In last years, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach is used more and more for both design and optimization to investigate the single blade geometrical configuration up to whole wind farm, for single wind turbines positioning and interaction. Specifically, the CFD approach can be used with advantages and limits to support the design of flow control devices, such as the vortex generators (VGs), to define the local fluid dynamics and to carry out a detailed analysis of VGs geometrical effects up to the modeling of wind farm through the use of Actuator Line Method (ALM) approach to limit the computational costs. Both analysis can be coupled with traditional methods such as BEM (Blade Element Momentum) theory to evaluate the effects on the turbine Annual Energy Output (AEP) and related economical consequences.