Effect of freestream turbulence on the coherent dynamics of a wind turbine wake

TL;DR

This study investigates how different levels of freestream turbulence affect the coherent structures and wake recovery of a wind turbine, revealing that turbulence accelerates vortex breakdown and enhances wake meandering.

Contribution

It provides new experimental insights into the influence of freestream turbulence characteristics on wind turbine wake dynamics, especially regarding vortex breakdown and energy transfer mechanisms.

Findings

Higher turbulence intensities lead to earlier vortex breakdown.

Wake recovery is accelerated with increased freestream turbulence.

Wake meandering amplitudes are higher in the far wake with turbulence.

Abstract

The wake of a model wind turbine exposed to incoming freestream turbulence (FST) with a variety of turbulent characteristics is studied through Particle Image Velocimetry experiments. The FST cases were produced using different passive turbulence generating grids. The cases spanned turbulent intensities (T_i) in the range 1.3% < T_i < 14% and only considered short integral length scales L_v<0.2D (where D is the turbine diameter). Increasing T_i and L_v in this range resulted in an earlier breakdown of the tip vortices which in turn resulted in an earlier onset of wake recovery. For all the FST cases considered, the initiation of wake meandering was found to be related to an intrinsic instability of the turbine, even for the cases with the highest FST levels. The amplitudes of wake meandering were similar for all the cases in the near wake (x<2D), but the amplitudes in the far wake (x>4D) were discernibly higher for all the FST cases compared to the no grid case (lowest T_i), primarily due to the early break down of the tip vortices. Deeper insights into the origins, and subsequent evolution, of the various coherent motions (characterised by particular frequencies) in the presence of FST are obtained through analysis of the multi-scale triple-decomposed coherent kinetic energy budgets. The wake meandering modes in the presence of FST are shown to better utilize the mean velocity shear, extracting more energy from the mean flow while other sources such as non-linear triadic interactions and diffusion also become important.