Wind tunnel evaluation of aerodynamic loads in FAST.Farm under
controlled wake conditions
Abstract
This study investigates the capability of FAST.Farm, a mid-fidelity wind
farm simulation tool employing the dynamic wake meandering approach, to
accurately predict loads on wind turbines in a small wind farm. The wind
farm consists of three 1:150 scale models of the DTU 10 MW wind turbine
tested in a wind tunnel under scenarios including steady-state
operation, wake steering, and dynamic wake actuation. The results
demonstrate that FAST.Farm, once calibrated with experimental data,
effectively predicts the thrust force and yaw moment of wind turbines
across diverse wake conditions. Notably, the Curl wake model—designed
to replicate the kidney-shaped wake deficit—has better accuracy in
capturing yaw moments of downstream turbines under yaw misalignment.
However, its tendency to overestimate wake expansion reduces accuracy in
non-skewed inflow scenarios compared to the Polar model. The study
highlights the necessity of optimizing FAST.Farm dynamic wake meandering
parameters to enhance its precision, particularly by accounting for
turbine spacing and wake interactions. Furthermore, it is crucial to
improve the accuracy of aerodynamic load calculations under skewed
inflow conditions. These findings provide a validated framework for
advancing wind farm simulation tools and optimizing wind turbine
performance in complex operational conditions.