Wind Farm with Series Arrangement, ANSYS Fluent CFD Simulation Training

Description

Description

The present problem simulates wind turbines with the series arrangement in a wind farm using ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis.

The wind turbines studied in this project are horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT), Which means that the ambient wind flow is parallel with the turbine’s axis horizontally.

The present model is designed in three dimensions using Design Modeler software. In this project, a computational domain has been designed for ambient wind flow, with a length of 240 m, a width of 30 m, and a height of 53 m.

Four horizontal-axis wind turbines with three blades are designed within this computational area. These turbines are located consecutively in the same direction and at a distance of 30 m from each other.

A distinct area is designed around these four turbines to apply the frame motion model and define the rotational motion of the turbine, which has a diameter of 18 m and a width of 3.1 m.

We carry out the model’s meshing using ANSYS Meshing software. The element number is 4154166.

Wind Farm Methodology

In this project, four wind turbines are designed in a row in a specific computational domain of ​​a large field called a wind farm (turbine farm).

A wind turbine is a piece of equipment in the category of turbomachines that uses wind kinetic energy to generate electricity; In this way, a strong wind current at high altitudes causes the turbine blades to rotate, and by rotating the central shaft of the turbine, an electric current is generated in the generator connected to the turbine body.

In general, horizontal axis wind turbines have higher performance efficiencies than vertical axis wind turbines and are built at much higher altitudes than vertical axis wind turbines.

This project aims to simultaneously study the wind flow around the blades of these four wind turbines and the interaction of each of these turbines with each other.

The Frame Motion method has been used To simulate the rotational motion of turbines in this project; Thus, an independent area with a circular cross-section around the blades of each turbine is designed separately, and for the airflow in these areas, the rotational speed is defined.

In fact, instead of applying a rotational speed to the turbine blades, this rotational speed is defined for the wind flow around the turbine blades. Each of these four wind turbine’s rotational speed is 60 rpm and is defined around the central axis of the turbines (x-axis).

It should be noted that the rotation-axis direction is the same for all turbines. However, the location of the rotation-axis origin is different because the location of the turbines is different from each other.

Also, the wind flow in this computational area is equivalent to 1 m.s-1 and is defined horizontally. Moreover, the SST k-omega model is used to solve the turbulent fluid equations inside the model to accurately predict the flow pattern near the turbine blades’ surface and far from them.

Wind Farm Conclusion

At the end of the solution process, we obtain two-dimensional and three-dimensional contours related to velocity and pressure and two-dimensional and three-dimensional flow lines.

The images show that the velocity and pressure gradients in the areas around the turbine blades become significant due to the contrast of the turbine’s rotational motion with the horizontal wind flow.

Also, in all four turbines, the wind flow increases radially, and the highest speed appears near the tips of the turbine blades. The contours also state that the sequential arrangement of the four turbines has caused them to interact with each other in terms of wind speed.