Improving the efficiency of wind farms via wake manipulation

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Abstract
Wind turbine farms suffer from wake losses, where the downstream turbines generate less power, and/or the leading turbines are throttled to reduce the downstream power losses. In this paper, we focus on possible external modifications that can enhance the wind turbines' performance when they are operating in a farm environment. In particular, this study is interested in enhancing the performance of the downstream turbines in wind farms. The idea is to move each turbine's wake down and away from subsequent turbines. This goal is achieved by using stationary external airfoils that are placed in proximity to the rotating blades. A number of different designs are tested and the design concepts are tested using Reynolds‐Averaged Navier‐Stokes simulations of an aligned array of 2 wind turbines. The turbines are modeled as actuator disks with axial induction and are placed in a velocity field that is modeled as a turbulent atmospheric boundary layer. It is found that fixed external airfoils can enable partial or full power recovery at turbine separations of as small as 3 rotor diameters downstream. We will also demonstrate that some devices can also improve the performance of the upstream turbine. The physical reasons for these power recovery phenomena are discussed.
Funding Information
  • National Science Foundation (1336502, 1353942)

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