An Immersed Boundary Method for Simulation of Wind Flow Over Complex Terrain

Abstract

The accurate modeling of the wind resource over complex terrain is required to optimize the micrositing of wind turbines. In this paper, an immersed boundary method that is used in connection with the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with k-ω turbulence model in order to efficiently simulate the wind flow over complex terrain is presented. With the immersed boundary method, only one Cartesian grid is required to simulate the wind flow for all wind directions, with only the rotation of the digital elevation map. Thus, the lengthy procedure of generating multiple grids for conventional rectangular domain is avoided. Wall functions are employed with the immersed boundary method in order to relax the stringent near-wall grid resolution requirements as well as to allow the effects of surface roughness to be accounted for. The immersed boundary method is applied to the complex terrain test case of Bolund Hill. The simulation results of wind speed and turbulent kinetic energy show good agreement with experiments for heights greater than 5 m above ground level.