Wake prediction of horizontal-axis wind turbine using full-rotor modeling

This work is devoted to the study of the wake characteristics in the near and far wake regions of a horizontal axis wind turbine, with an exact representation of the rotor blades. The computational numerical solution was carried out by solving the conservation equations for one outer stationary reference frame and one inner rotating reference frame, wherein the blades and grids were fixed in reference to the rotating frame. The results were obtained using the steady state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the turbulence was simulated via the k-epsilon turbulence model. The results of the full rotor approach using the standard k-epsilon turbulence model are compared with the results of the actuator disc approach using the standard k-epsilon turbulence model and two modified k-epsilon models used by the earlier researchers. The wake behavior was tested and validated with the experimental results of the three blade Danwin 180 kW wind turbine available in the literature. The results obtained from the full rotor model showed good agreement with the available experimental data, in comparison with the improvement achieved by the actuator disc approach using modified versions of the k-epsilon model. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.