Three-dimensional wind simulation

Conference · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6633902

Veers, P S

A method for numerically simulating a three-dimensional field of turbulent wind-speed (the ''Sandia method'') for use in the aerodynamic and structural analyses of wind turbines is presented. The required inputs are single point power spectral densities (PSDs) and the coherence function. Suggestions for appropriate inputs and an example calculation are included. The simulation method is use to obtain ''rotationally sampled'' PSDs, which are compared with measurements obtained by Pacific Northwest Laboratories. The results show that the Sandia method is capable of producing simulations that agree with the measurements, especially when the coherence function is augmented from the usual form to include the ratio of spatial separation over height, raised to the 0.25 power. The method is specialized for horizontal axis wind turbine analysis by phase lagging the simulations at each point in space so that wind speeds are simulated only when the turbine blade passes the point, reducing storage requirements and computation time by nearly an order of magnitude. For vertical axis applications, where interpolation will be required, the loss of variance induced by the interpolation is estimated and eliminated by the addition of appropriate white noise. 16 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6633902
• Report Number(s): SAND-88-0152C; CONF-890102-9; ON: DE89003171
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
170600* -- Wind Energy Engineering
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990230 -- Mathematics & Mathematical Models-- (1987-1989)
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA
DYNAMIC LOADS
EQUATIONS
INFORMATION
MACHINERY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUMERICAL DATA
SIMULATION
TURBINES
TURBOMACHINERY
TURBULENCE
WIND
WIND LOADS
WIND TURBINES