A comparative study of wake interactions between wind-aligned and yawed wind turbines using LES and actuator line models

Abstract An LES based OpenFOAM solver is coupled with the actuator line model for the simulation of wind farms and the prediction of power production. The tool developed is validated for wind aligned and yawed tandem wind turbines. Two NREL 5MW turbines in a tandem configuration are considered. The solution parameters are first studied in detail. The development of vortical wakes behind the upstream and the downstream turbines are simulated under uniform and atmospheric boundary layer inflow conditions, and the power productions of the turbines are predicted. The impact of a yawed upstream rotor on its wake deflection and the resulting power production of the tandem configuration are assessed. It is shown that the coupled solver developed is quite successful in capturing the wake deficits and wake deflections, and predicting the power production of tandem wind turbine configurations.