Real time controlled wind turbine wake simulator

Abstract

A wind tunnel based “Hyper Accelerated Wind Farm Kinematic-Control Simulator” (HAWKS) is being built at Texas Tech University to emulate the effect of wind farm control strategies in real time. The HAWKS model turbine control is capable of instantaneously altering the thrust coefficient (Cₜ) and power coefficient (Cₚ) through rapid changes in blade pitch, turbine yaw, and rotor speed. In this study, HAWKS capabilities were tested by analyzing the concept of dynamic induction factor control, a potential control strategy to increase wind farm power production. The rotor induction factor was altered by continuously varying the rotor RPM. This affects turbulence structure of the wake, reducing the wake velocity deficit due to enhanced turbulent transport of freestream momentum into the wake. Furthermore, it was observed that wake deflection can also be affected by changing the rotor speed.

Authors

Ricardo Castillo, Yeqin Wang, Suhas Pol, Andy Swift and Carsten Westergaard

Keywords

Wind Turbine Wakes, Yaw Control, Particle Image Velocimetry, Reynolds Stress, Wind Tunnel Tests, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Nacelles, Closed Loop Control, AeronauticsLight Detection and Ranging

Publication Type

Journal Article

Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2017-1616

Full Citation

Castillo, R., Wang, Y., Pol, S., Swift, A., & Westergaard, C. (2017). Real time controlled wind turbine wake simulator. In 35th wind energy symposium (p. 1616).

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