Implementation and Validation of a Generalized Actuator Disk
Parameterization for Wind Turbine Simulations within the FastEddy ®
Model
Abstract
Fast and accurate large-eddy simulation (LES) of the atmospheric
boundary layer plays a crucial role in advancing wind energy research.
Long-duration wind farm studies at turbine-resolving scales have become
increasingly important to understand the intricate interactions between
large wind farms and the atmospheric boundary layer. However, the
prohibitive computational cost of these turbulence- and turbine-
resolving simulations has precluded such modeling to be exercised on a
regular basis. To that end, we implement and validate the Generalized
Actuator Disk (GAD) model in the computationally efficient, graphics
processing unit (GPU)-resident, LES model FastEddy ®.
We perform single-turbine simulations under three atmospheric
stabilities (neutral, unstable and stable) and compare them against
observations from the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility and
other LES codes from the recent turbine wake model benchmark of Doubrawa
et al. (2020). Our idealized LES results agree well with observed wake
velocity deficit and downstream recovery across stability regimes.
Turbine response in terms of rotational speed, generated power, torque,
and thrust coefficient, are well predicted across stability regimes and
are consistent with the LES results from the benchmark. The FastEddy
® simulations are found to be at least two orders of
magnitude more efficient than the traditional CPU-based LES models,
opening the door for realistic LES simulations of full wind plants as a
viable standard practice.