Wind tunnel

Boundary layer

Electrical engineering

Physics

Engineering

Aerodynamic force

Aerodynamics

Vortex

Aerospace engineering

Artificial intelligence

Rotor (electric)

Wake turbulence

Control (management)

Inflow

Turbine

Flapping

Flow (mathematics)

Computer science

Control theory (sociology)

Wake

Mechanics

Mechanical engineering

Wind power

Wing

Wind energy science

Abstract. When a wind turbine is yawed, the shape of the wake changes and a curled wake profile is generated. The curled wake has drawn a lot of interest because of its aerodynamic complexity and applicability to wind farm controls. The main mechanism for the creation of the curled wake has been identified in the literature as a collection of vortices that are shed from the rotor plane when the turbine is yawed. This work extends that idea by using aerodynamic concepts to develop a control-oriented model for the curled wake based on approximations to the Navier–Stokes equations. The model is tested and compared to time-averaged results from large-eddy simulations using actuator disk and line models. The model is able to capture the curling mechanism for a turbine under uniform inflow and in the case of a neutral atmospheric boundary layer. The model is then incorporated to the FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady State (FLORIS) framework and provides good agreement with power predictions for cases with two and three turbines in a row.

The aerodynamics of the curled wake: a simplified model in view of flow control