Journal article
Analytical Model for Mean Flow and Fluxes of Momentum and Energy in Very Large Wind Farms
Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Vol.166(1), pp.31-49
01/2018
DOI: 10.1007/s10546-017-0294-6
Abstract
As wind-turbine arrays continue to be installed and the array size continues to grow, there is an increasing need to represent very large wind-turbine arrays in numerical weather prediction models, for wind-farm optimization, and for environmental assessment. We propose a simple analytical model for boundary-layer flow in fully-developed wind-turbine arrays, based on the concept of sparsely-obstructed shear flows. In describing the vertical distribution of the mean wind speed and shear stress within wind farms, our model estimates the mean kinetic energy harvested from the atmospheric boundary layer, and determines the partitioning between the wind power captured by the wind turbines and that absorbed by the underlying land or water. A length scale based on the turbine geometry, spacing, and performance characteristics, is able to estimate the asymptotic limit for the fully-developed flow through wind-turbine arrays, and thereby determine if the wind-farm flow is fully developed for very large turbine arrays. Our model is validated using data collected in controlled wind-tunnel experiments, and its usefulness for the prediction of wind-farm performance and optimization of turbine-array spacing are described. Our model may also be useful for assessing the extent to which the extraction of wind power affects the land–atmosphere coupling or air–water exchange of momentum, with implications for the transport of heat, moisture, trace gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, and ecologically important oxygen.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Analytical Model for Mean Flow and Fluxes of Momentum and Energy in Very Large Wind Farms
- Creators
- Corey Markfort - IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering The University of Iowa Iowa City IA 52242 USAWei Zhang - Department of Mechanical Engineering Cleveland State University Cleveland OH 44115 USAFernando Porté-Agel - Wind Engineering and Renewable Energy Laboratory (WIRE), ENAC-IIE-WIRE École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 1015 Lausanne Switzerland
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Boundary-Layer Meteorology, Vol.166(1), pp.31-49
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10546-017-0294-6
- ISSN
- 0006-8314
- eISSN
- 1573-1472
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands; Dordrecht
- Grant note
- 200021-172538 / Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (CH) EPS-1101284 / National Science Foundation (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering; Mechanical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9983992042002771
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