Abstract. This study proposes two methodologies for improving the accuracy of wind
turbine load assessment under wake conditions by combining nacelle-mounted
lidar measurements with wake wind field reconstruction techniques. The first
approach consists of incorporating wind measurements of the wake flow field,
obtained from nacelle lidars, into random, homogeneous Gaussian turbulence
fields generated using the Mann spectral tensor model. The second approach
imposes wake deficit time series, which are derived by fitting a bivariate
Gaussian shape function to lidar observations of the wake field, on the Mann
turbulence fields. The two approaches are numerically evaluated using a
virtual lidar simulator, which scans the wake flow fields generated with the
dynamic wake meandering (DWM) model, i.e., the target fields. The
lidar-reconstructed wake fields are then input into aeroelastic simulations of
the DTU 10 MW wind turbine for carrying out the load validation
analysis. The power and load time series, predicted with lidar-reconstructed
fields, exhibit a high correlation with the corresponding target
simulations, thus reducing the statistical uncertainty
(realization-to-realization) inherent to engineering wake models such as the
DWM model. We quantify a reduction in power and loads' statistical uncertainty
by a factor of between 1.2 and 5, depending on the wind turbine component, when
using lidar-reconstructed fields compared to the DWM model results. Finally,
we show that the number of lidar-scanned points in the inflow and the size of
the lidar probe volume are critical aspects for the accuracy of the
reconstructed wake fields, power, and load predictions.