Assessment of wake effects in wind turbines operating in complex terrain and in non-neutral atmosphere implementing numerical modelling and simulation

• Grant number: 21/03780-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2021
• End date: May 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Transport Phenomena
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Souza Carmo
• Grantee: Victor Couto Durra
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

With the growing interest in the generation of energy through wind turbines, the installation of these in complex terrains is becoming more common. The interactions of the atmospheric flow with both the ground and the turbines are fundamental to understand the behavior of these devices throughout their lifespan, and these interactions can become quite intricate when the terrain is not flat. Therefore, it is necessary to advance more in the computational capacity to correctly predict the operation of wind farms, in order to guarantee a more accurate predictability of energy production, reducing the risk for the financial return of the project. This research project intends to make a contribution in this sense, having as main objective to determine, using numerical modeling and simulation of the LES type, in the open-source Open FOAM software, the effect resulting from the wake in a wind turbine downstream from another one, in an idealized complex terrain, of the slope type. In order to better evaluate these effects, variations will be made in simulation parameters such as turbine positions, wind speed and stability condition of the atmospheric boundary layer.