3D Lagrangian VPM-FMM for Modelling the Near-Wake of a HAWT

The development of a stable, accurate, and efficient numerical solver for large-scale wind energy purposes

Master thesis (2015)

Authors

T.J. Berdowski Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

Carlos Ferreira (supervisor 1)
J. Walther (supervisor 1)
S. Mayer (supervisor 1)
G.A.M. van Kuik (supervisor 2)
Meng F. (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2015 Tom Berdowski
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Published Date

07-05-2015

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

Traditionally, the design of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) has relied on momentum-based methods such as the Blade Element-Momentum (BEM) models. With the growth of computational power, optimization of wind turbines by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for the explicit wake modelling is becoming more mainstream. Wake modelling is also conveniently handled by Lagrangian vortex methods, which offer the advantage of auto-adaptivity regarding multi-scale vortical flows and distribution of vorticity in space. The current thesis work focusses on the class of Vortex Particle Methods (VPM) which allows for the efficient treatment of complex wake aerodynamics, especially when the connectivity of vortex filaments plays a significant role, such as with blade-wake interactions and viscous or turbulent diffusion.