CFD simulations of a performance-scaled wind turbine

Maokun Ye, Hamn-Ching Chen and Arjen Koop

Abstract

In the present study, we focus on the CFD simulations for the performance and the rotor-generated wake of a model-scale wind turbine which was designed for wave tank experiments. The CFD simulations with fully resolved rotor geometry are performed using MARIN's community-based open-source CFD code ReFRESCO. The absolute formulation method (AFM) is leveraged to model the rotating wind turbine. The k-w SST turbulence model is adopted in the incompressible Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations. First, the thrust and torque coefficients, CT and CP are calculated at different Tip Speed Ratios (TSR), and the results are compared against the experimental data and previous numerical results. The pressure distribution of the turbine blades at the 70% span is obtained and compared to the results obtained by other tools. Then, a verification study aiming at quantifying the discretization uncertainty of the turbine performance with respect to the grid resolution in the wake region is performed. Last, the rotor-generated wake at the TSR of 7 is presented and discussed.

Key Words

CFD simulation; FOWT; numerical uncertainties; wind turbine

Address

Maokun Ye: Department of Ocean Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA Hamn-Ching Chen :Department of Ocean Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA; Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA Arjen Koop: MARIN – Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, Wageningen, The Netherlands

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