IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i21p6858-d660315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Terrain as a Turbulence Generation Method

Author

Listed:
  • Patrick Hawbecker

    (National Center for Atmospheric Research, 3450 Mitchell Ln., Boulder, CO 80301, USA)

  • Matthew Churchfield

    (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80501, USA)

Abstract

When driving microscale large-eddy simulations with mesoscale model solutions, turbulence will take space to develop, known as fetch , on the microscale domain. To reduce fetch, it is common to add perturbations near the boundaries to speed up turbulence development. However, when simulating domains over complex terrain, it is possible that the terrain itself can quickly generate turbulence within the boundary layer. It is shown here that rugged terrain is able to generate turbulence without the assistance of a perturbation strategy; however, the levels of turbulence generated are improved when adding perturbations at the inlet. Flow over smoothed, but not flat, terrain fails to generate adequate turbulence throughout the boundary layer in all tests conducted herein. Sensitivities to the strength of the mean wind speed and boundary layer height are investigated and show that higher wind speeds produce turbulence over terrain features that slower wind speeds do not. Further, by increasing the height of the capping inversion, the effectiveness of topography alone to generate turbulence throughout the depth of the boundary is diminished. In all cases, the inclusion of a perturbation strategy improved simulation performance with respect to turbulence development.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrick Hawbecker & Matthew Churchfield, 2021. "Evaluating Terrain as a Turbulence Generation Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-26, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6858-:d:660315
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6858/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/21/6858/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Takanori Uchida, 2018. "Numerical Investigation of Terrain-Induced Turbulence in Complex Terrain by Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) Technique," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-15, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xinkai Li & Ke Yang & Hao Hu & Xiaodong Wang & Shun Kang, 2019. "Effect of Tailing-Edge Thickness on Aerodynamic Noise for Wind Turbine Airfoil," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-25, January.
    2. Koichi Watanabe & Yuji Ohya & Takanori Uchida, 2019. "Power Output Enhancement of a Ducted Wind Turbine by Stabilizing Vortices around the Duct," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-17, August.
    3. C. A. Lopez-Villalobos & O. Rodriguez-Hernandez & R. Campos-Amezcua & Guillermo Hernandez-Cruz & O. A. Jaramillo & J. L. Mendoza, 2018. "Wind Turbulence Intensity at La Ventosa, Mexico: A Comparative Study with the IEC61400 Standards," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, November.
    4. Hu, Weicheng & Yang, Qingshan & Chen, Hua-Peng & Yuan, Ziting & Li, Chen & Shao, Shuai & Zhang, Jian, 2021. "Wind field characteristics over hilly and complex terrain in turbulent boundary layers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    5. Takanori Uchida & Susumu Takakuwa, 2019. "A Large-Eddy Simulation-Based Assessment of the Risk of Wind Turbine Failures Due to Terrain-Induced Turbulence over a Wind Farm in Complex Terrain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-19, May.
    6. Gürdal Ertek & Lakshmi Kailas, 2021. "Analyzing a Decade of Wind Turbine Accident News with Topic Modeling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-34, November.
    7. Susumu Takakuwa & Takanori Uchida, 2022. "Improvement of Airflow Simulation by Refining the Inflow Wind Direction and Applying Atmospheric Stability for Onshore and Offshore Wind Farms Affected by Topography," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-27, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:21:p:6858-:d:660315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.