An Aerodynamic Method for the Analysis of IsolatedHorizontal-Axis Wind Turbines

[摘要] The aerodynamic analysis of a wind turbine represents a very complex task since it involvesan unsteady three-dimensional viscous flow. In most existing performance-analysis methods,wind turbines are considered isolated so that interference effects caused by other rotors or bythe site topology are neglected. Studying these effects in order to optimize the arrangementand the positioning of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) on a wind farm is one of theresearch activities of the Bombardier Aeronautical Chair. As a preliminary step in theprogress of this project, a method that includes some of the essential ingredients for theanalysis of wind farms has been developed and is presented in the paper. In this proposedmethod, the flow field around isolated HAWTs is predicted by solving the steady-state,incompressible, two-dimensional axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations. The turbine is representedby a distribution of momentum sources. The resulting governing equations aresolved using a Control-Volume Finite Element Method (CVFEM). This axisymmetric implementationefficiently illustrates the applicability and viability of the proposed methodology,by using a formulation that necessitates a minimum of computer resources. The axisymmetricmethod produces performance predictions for isolated machines with the samelevel of accuracy than the well-known momentum-strip theory. It can therefore be consideredto be a useful tool for the design of HAWTs. Its main advantage, however, is its capacity topredict the flow in the wake which constitutes one of the essential features needed for theperformance predictions of wind farms of dense cluster arrangements.

[学科分类] 力学，机械学