Numerical Study of Wind Resource Assessment of a Complex Terrain

Abstract

Wind resource assessment of a complex terrain like Narvik area in North Norway, was carried outusing computational fluid dynamics based numerical approach. The research work is aimed at understanding the effects of different operating and geometric variables such as terrain size, surface roughness as well as the height of atmospheric boundary layer on the resultant wind profile in complex terrains. Numerical results were also compared with the field data from two meteorological stations located at different locations in the surroundings of the Narvik area. The comparison was done for a short period from October-November 2012. Different scenarios based on five domains (terrains) extensions, three roughness scales and two boundary layers heights were numerically analysed. Results show that for a specific velocity direction the selection of domain has the major influence on the simulated wind field when compared with the roughness scale used and the boundary layer. A good agreement between the simulation results and the reported experimental data for the two selected locations was found.