Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics (PhD)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Advisor 1

Fernando Ponta

Committee Member 1

Leonard Bohmann

Committee Member 2

Hassan Masoud

Committee Member 3

Kazuya Tajiri

Abstract

Wind power science has seen tremendous development and growth over the last 40 years. Advancements in design, manufacturing, installation, and operation of wind turbines have enabled the commercial deployment of wind power generation systems. These have been due, in a large part, to the expertise in the simulation and modeling of individual wind turbines. The new generation of wind energy systems calls for a need to accurately predict and model the entire wind farm, and not just individual turbines. The commercial deployment of these wind farms depends on model's ability to accurately capture the different physics involved, each at its respective scale, and then make accurate predictions of acceptable fidelity at a manageable computational cost.

The work presented in this dissertation extends the capabilities of a multi-physics suite to provide the capability to simulate the wakes of multiple turbines in a wind farm. By the implementation of a novel vortex lattice model, it enables the effective representation of the complex vortex wake dynamics of the turbines in a farm subject to transient inflow conditions. It explores the effect of different types of blades on the turbine wake. The goal is to obtain an accurate representation of the turbine-to-turbine wake interaction in a wind farm, which is demonstrated by simulations of two, four, nine and twenty turbine wind farms.

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