TY - JOUR
T1 - Performance of the porous disk wind turbine model at a high Reynolds number
T2 - Solidity distribution and length scales effects
AU - Kurelek, John W.
AU - Piqué, Alexander
AU - Hultmark, Marcus
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the National Science Foundation, USA under Grant No. CBET 1652583 (Program Manager Ron Joslin).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/6
Y1 - 2023/6
N2 - A new design methodology for porous disk wind turbine modeling is proposed, where a disk is matched to a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) on (i) thrust coefficient, (ii) radial solidity distribution, and (iii) length scale criteria. Three disk designs are tested, allowing for isolation of the effects of each criterion, with performance evaluated through experimental wake comparisons with a model HAWT at a diameter-based Reynolds number of 4 × 106 and free-stream turbulence intensity of 1.2%. Wake velocity measurements reveal excellent agreement on mean profiles in the near wake (as early as 1[Formula presented] diameters downstream) when the rotor's radial solidity distribution is incorporated into the disk design. Higher order velocity statistics can also be matched farther downstream (3[Formula presented] diameters). To match the higher order moments, the disk must generate near wake turbulence of similar characteristics to the rotor, since this turbulence dominates the development of the wake in a high Reynolds number, low free-stream turbulence environment. This is achieved by the third design criterion, where physical features that match the rotor length scales are incorporated. Thus, including all three criteria in a single porous disk yields a model that performs well at field-relevant Reynolds numbers, is not performance dependent on the free-stream turbulence intensity, and does not require iterative tuning.
AB - A new design methodology for porous disk wind turbine modeling is proposed, where a disk is matched to a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) on (i) thrust coefficient, (ii) radial solidity distribution, and (iii) length scale criteria. Three disk designs are tested, allowing for isolation of the effects of each criterion, with performance evaluated through experimental wake comparisons with a model HAWT at a diameter-based Reynolds number of 4 × 106 and free-stream turbulence intensity of 1.2%. Wake velocity measurements reveal excellent agreement on mean profiles in the near wake (as early as 1[Formula presented] diameters downstream) when the rotor's radial solidity distribution is incorporated into the disk design. Higher order velocity statistics can also be matched farther downstream (3[Formula presented] diameters). To match the higher order moments, the disk must generate near wake turbulence of similar characteristics to the rotor, since this turbulence dominates the development of the wake in a high Reynolds number, low free-stream turbulence environment. This is achieved by the third design criterion, where physical features that match the rotor length scales are incorporated. Thus, including all three criteria in a single porous disk yields a model that performs well at field-relevant Reynolds numbers, is not performance dependent on the free-stream turbulence intensity, and does not require iterative tuning.
KW - Actuator disk model
KW - High Reynolds number
KW - Horizontal axis wind turbine
KW - Porous disk
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jweia.2023.105377
DO - 10.1016/j.jweia.2023.105377
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152493007
SN - 0167-6105
VL - 237
JO - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
JF - Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics
M1 - 105377
ER -