Actuator volumes and hr-adaptive methods for three-dimensional simulation of wind turbine wakes and performance

This paper presents a three-dimensional numerical model for horizontal axis wind turbines, capable of simulating both the dynamic response of the turbine to changing flow conditions, and the full wake generated by the turbine. The turbine model is coupled to computational fluid dynamics software using Large Eddy Simulation to solve for unsteady flow conditions, with the Smagorinsky method handling sub-grid turbulence. Wind tunnel simulations are compared with experimental data, and then a simulation of a real turbine in complex terrain is compared with LIDAR data from the same site, in both cases agreeing favourably. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.