Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • U.S. offshore wind projects
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Wind Power Videos
    • Wind Power Events
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
    • Enewsletter Subscription
    • Magazine Subscription
  • About Us
  • 2022 Leadership in Wind
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
    • 2019 Winners

CFD simulations give insight to rotor designs

By Paul Dvorak | August 11, 2014

One of the primary roles of Sandia’s Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) test site will be to conduct detailed experiments on turbine wakes and investigate how those wakes interact with nearby turbines. Although the SWiFT turbines are somewhat smaller than MW-scale turbines deployed today, Sandia would like the SWiFT turbines, and their wakes, to behave in a similar manner to those of larger machines. To that end, research rotors are being designed to mimic the blade loading of larger turbines, and Sandia is partnering with researchers at U. of Minnesota a Saint Anthong Falls Lab to use high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to aid in that effort.

Sandig fig 8

An open question is how the details of the blade loading affect the development and breakdown of the wake behind the rotor. To answer this question, U. of Minnesota, under the direction of Professor Fotis Sotiropoulos, is running simulations of SWiFT turbine wakes using their Virtual Wind Simulator (VWiS) code. This code is a high-fidelity large eddy simulation code that requires significant computational resources to run. It is being run on Sandia’s Red Sky and Red Mesa supercomputers, two institutional computing clusters available for energy-related research. An example of a VWiS simulation of the SWiFT rotor wake is shown in the illustration above. Simulation results will be used to understand the physical mechanisms of near-wake development, and to identify how changes in rotor design impact behavior of the wake. Additional simulations of the entire three-turbine SWiFT site are also underway; the results of these simulations will be used to help establish the expected power performance and loads profile of the SWiFT site under various atmospheric conditions.

Sandia National Lab
sandia.gov

Matt Barone, (505) 284-8686.

 


Filed Under: Blades, News, Turbines
Tagged With: Sandia
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Tell Us What You Think!

Related Articles Read More >

EDF tests underwater drone at UK offshore wind farm
GE unveils 3-MW onshore turbine built for North American market
TotalEnergies developing 1-GW offshore wind farm off Carolina coast
NRG Systems adopts ZX Lidars’ latest wind profile measurement tool

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight Interview: RAD Torque Systems
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Browse the most current issue of Windpower Engineering & Development and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Battery Power Tips
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • Advertising
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • U.S. offshore wind projects
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Wind Power Videos
    • Wind Power Events
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
    • Enewsletter Subscription
    • Magazine Subscription
  • About Us
  • 2022 Leadership in Wind
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
    • 2019 Winners