Dynamic interaction of inflow and rotor time scales and impact on single turbine wake recovery

Abstract

Abstract The entrainment and recovery of wind turbine wakes are highly dependent on atmospheric inflow conditions, which has typically been quantified through the turbulent intensity. However, recent studies have shown that the integral time scales of the inflow has significant impact on the wake recovery. Concurrently, increased power production can also be achieved through intentionally introducing beneficial time scales by altering the control of the individual wind turbines. This study studies the combined impact of the dynamic interaction between dominant inflow and rotor time scales. The results show increased power production of a downstream wind turbine of more than 50% for the largest thrust coefficients and tip-speed ratios (TSR). However, the peak power gain occurs at different downstream positions indicating that combinations of inflow time scales and TSR = 6 result in faster near wake breakdown compared to the same inflow time scales combined with higher thrust coefficient of TSR = 8.