Large Eddy Simulation of Yawed Wind Turbine Wake Deformation

Abstract

Wind turbine wake redirection drawn by a yaw control has been proposed as a strategy to improve the performance of wind farms. However, the characteristics and the development of the curled wake structure deformed by the yaw action of the rotor are not well understood. In the present study, the structure of the wake behind a wind turbine imparted with various yaw angles subjected to uniform inflow was investigated using large-eddy simulation. The NREL 5MW reference wind turbine was modeled with an actuator disk with rotation to study the deformation process of the curled wake. The source of the vertical asymmetry in the wake deformation was found to be based on the interaction of global wake rotation and a counter-rotating vortex pair induced by the yaw angle. The yaw angle had a profound influence on the distortion of the wake and its trajectory, whose effect was naturally mitigated with downstream distance.