CFD Simulations of Near and Far Wakes of Two Turbines in a Tandem Configuration

The offshore wind energy market is growing rapidly globally. To be more competitive in the energy market, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of offshore wind farms needs to be further reduced. However, currently, popular tools for wind farm modeling are based on simplified models either for near-wake or for far-wake regions due to the difficulties of resolving them simultaneously. This simplification could result in large uncertainties in predictions of the power extraction of the wind farms. Further, for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT), floater motions will also affect the airflow around the turbine and eventually affect the power output of the wind farm. To address these issues, tools with a higher level of accuracy must be developed for modeling the multi-scale airflow in offshore wind farms.

In the present study, we focus on the aerodynamic forces and the turbine-generated wakes of two parked turbines in a tandem configuration, as can be found in wind farms under unfavorable conditions. Model-scale simulations of the MARIN Stock Wind Turbine (MSWT) are performed. The CFD simulations with fully resolved rotor geometries are performed using MARIN's in-house CFD code ReFRESCO. The absolute formulation method (AFM) is leveraged to model the two rotating wind turbines. The k − ω SST turbulence model is adopted in the incompressible Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations.

The aerodynamic forces and wakes of single turbine cases are analyzed and compared to those of two tandemly arrayed turbines.

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