Large Eddy Simulation of wind turbine fatigue loading and yaw dynamics induced by wake turbulence

Abstract

A coupled Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and aeroelastic code was used to evaluate control responses and fatigue loading of a four-inline wind turbine array. Neutral and unstably stratified atmospheric boundary layers with hub-height wind speeds of 7 and 15 m/s were used for wind farm inflows. These cases operate in different control regions. It was found that for both incoming wind speeds, atmospheric stability has no significant impact on the fatigue loads of the front-row wind turbines. However, stability affected wake characteristics which caused differences in control response and fatigue experienced by downstream turbines. The most distinctive difference was observed at a downstream turbine in the above-rated condition where the shaft torsional load in neutral stability condition was up to 50% higher than the unstable case. A baseline active yaw controller was implemented in the below-rated condition, which caused higher fatigue on turbines in the wake compared to the fixed yaw turbine case, without any power output gain.