The curled wake model: A three-dimensional and extremely fast steady-state wake solver for wind plant flows

Dabiri

2020

Energies

Methods for wind farm power optimization through the use of wake steering often rely on engineering wake models due to the computational complexity associated with resolving wind farm dynamics numerically. Within the transient, turbulent atmospheric boundary layer, closed-loop control is required to dynamically adjust to evolving wind conditions, wherein the optimal wake model parameters are estimated as a function of time in a hybrid physics- and data-driven approach using supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data. Analytic wake models rely on wake velocity deficit superposition methods to generalize the individual wake deficit to collective wind farm flow. In this study, the impact of the wake model superposition methodologies on closed-loop control are tested in large eddy simulations of the conventionally neutral atmospheric boundary layer with full Coriolis effects. A model for the non-vanishing lateral velocity trailing a yaw misaligned turbine, termed secondary steering, is also presented, validated, and tested in the closed-loop control framework. Modified linear and momentum conserving wake superposition methodologies increase the power production in closed-loop wake steering control statistically significantly more than linear superposition. While the secondary steering model increases the power production and reduces the predictive error associated with the wake model, the impact is not statistically significant. Modified linear and momentum conserving superposition using the proposed secondary steering model increase a six turbine array power production, compared to baseline control, in large eddy simulations by 7.5% and 7.7%, respectively, with wake model predictive mean absolute errors of 0.03P1 and 0.04P1, respectively, where P1 is the baseline power production of the leading turbine in the array. Ensemble Kalman filter parameter estimation significantly reduces the wake model predictive error for all wake deficit superposition and secondary steering cases compared to predefined model parameters.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Two-dimensional Secondary Steering Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Wake Model Superposition and Secondary Steering on Model-Based Wake Steering Control with SCADA Data Assimilation

Dabiri

2020

Energies

“…Further improvements in active wake control are necessary to increase the efficacy of wake steering, such as closed-loop control [22,28,33,38] or machine learning based methods [39]. Additionally, further improvements in flow control models are necessary to capture three dimensional effects such as wake curling [40,41,42], veer [19,43], and stability [22,44].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collective wind farm operation based on a predictive model increases utility-scale energy production

Quesada

Martínez

et al. 2022

Preprint

Wind turbines located in wind farms are operated to maximize only their own power production. Individual operation results in wake losses that reduce farm energy. In this study, we operate a wind turbine array collectively to maximize total array production through wake steering. The selection of the farm control strategy relies on the optimization of computationally efficient flow models. We develop a physics-based, data-assisted flow control model to predict the optimal control strategy. In contrast to previous studies, we first design and implement a multi-month field experiment at a utility-scale wind farm to validate the model over a range of control strategies, most of which are suboptimal. The flow control model is able to predict the optimal yaw misalignment angles for the array within ±5 • for most wind directions (11-32% power gains). Using the validated model, we design a control protocol which increases the energy production of the farm in a second multi-month experiment by 2.7% and 1.0%, for the wind directions of interest and for wind speeds between 6 and 8 m/s and all wind speeds, respectively. The developed and validated predictive model can enable a wider adoption of collective wind farm operation.

“…An instantaneous snapshot Flow field heterogeneity can be physically modeled in future work (e.g. Starke et al, 2021;Martínez-Tossas et al, 2021).…”

Section: Setup Of Large Eddy Simulations Of the Diurnal Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal closed-loop wake steering, Part 2: Diurnal cycle atmospheric boundary layer conditions

Ghate

Quesada

et al. 2021

Preprint

Abstract. The magnitude of wake interactions between individual wind turbines depends on the atmospheric stability. We investigate strategies for wake loss mitigation through the use of closed-loop wake steering using large eddy simulations of the diurnal cycle, where variations in the surface heat flux in time modify the atmospheric stability, wind speed and direction, shear, turbulence, and other atmospheric boundary layer flow (ABL) features. The closed-loop wake steering control methodology developed in Part 1 (Howland et al., Wind Energy Science, 2020, 5, 1315–1338) is implemented in an eight turbine wind farm in large eddy simulations of the diurnal cycle. The optimal yaw misalignment set-points depend on the wind direction, which varies in time during the diurnal cycle. To improve the application of wake steering control in transient ABL conditions with an evolving mean flow state, we develop a regression-based wind direction forecast method. We compare the closed-loop wake steering control methodology to baseline yaw aligned control and open-loop lookup table control for various selections of the yaw misalignment set-point update frequency, which dictates the balance between wind direction tracking and yaw activity. Closed-loop wake steering with set-point optimization under uncertainty results in higher collective energy production than both baseline yaw aligned control and open-loop lookup table control. The increase in wind farm energy production for closed- and open-loop wake steering control compared to baseline yaw aligned control, is 4.0–4.1 % and 3.4–3.8 %, respectively, with the range indicating variations in the energy increase results depending on the set-point update frequency. The primary energy increases through wake steering occur during stable ABL conditions. Open-loop lookup table control decreases energy production in the convective ABL conditions simulated, compared to baseline yaw aligned control, while closed-loop control increases energy production in convective conditions.