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Computational Examination of Utility Scale Wind Turbine Wake Interactions

Tyamo Okosun and Chenn Q Zhou

Numerical simulations of small, utility scale wind turbine groupings were performed to determine how wakes generated by upstream turbines affect the performance of the small turbine group as a whole. Specifically, various wind turbine arrangements were simulated to better understand how turbine location influences small group wake interactions. The minimization of power losses due to wake interactions certainly plays a significant role in the optimization of wind farms. Since wind turbines extract kinetic energy from the wind, the air passing through a wind turbine decreases in velocity, and turbines downstream of the initial turbine experience flows of lower energy, resulting in reduced power output. This study proposes two arrangements of turbines that could generate more power by exploiting the momentum of the wind to increase velocity at downstream turbines, while maintaining low wake interactions at the same time. Simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamics are used to obtain results much more quickly than methods requiring wind tunnel models or a large scale experimental test.