Regional-scale wind farm aerodynamics
The role of atmospheric gravity waves
M.A. Khan (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
S.J. Watson – Promotor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
D.A. von Terzi – Promotor (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
Matthew Churchfield – Promotor (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
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Abstract
Large offshore wind farms and wind-farm clusters, referred to as regional-scale wind farms in this study, interact with the atmosphere beyond their boundaries. Besides their wakes extending to tens of kilometers horizontally, regional-scale wind farms induce atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) interacting with shallow capping inversions and the free atmosphere aloft. As the size and number of regional-scale wind farms are growing, predicting their performance is becoming vital, as it directly links with wind farm planning and operations, and therefore the associated economics. Understanding the physical processes is essential for an accurate prediction of wind farm performance. There is significant knowledge concerning wind farmwakes and internal boundary layers, but the study of wind-farm-induced atmospheric gravity waves is relatively new to the wind energy community. Given the large size and relatively low amplitudes of these waves, field experiments are difficult. Engineering models often rely on analytical solutions to provide sufficient physical insight, but at this point, there is no analytical solution available for wind-farm-induced atmospheric gravity waves. Thus, high-fidelity numerical modeling, mostly large eddy simulations (LES), is the most viable method to investigate wind-farm-induced atmospheric gravity waves.