Short-Term Numerical Forecasting of Near-Ground Wind Fields Using OpenFOAM Coupled With WRF

View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-1737.vid In this study, a numerical framework is developed for coupling meso-scale atmospheric flow simulations with WRF and micro-scale Navier-Stokes simulations with OpenFOAM in order to capture near-ground wind fields accurately for short-term wind power forecasting. GFS data is used as the meteorological input data in WRF simulations. The velocity field at the outer boundaries of the OpenFOAM solution domain is then extracted and interpolated from the WRF simulation. Complex terrain topography is resolved in the computational grid. Atmospheric turbulence is modeled with the k-w-SST model. The incompressible unsteady RANS solutions provide a high resolution micro-scale flow field. Two most prominent variables that determine the wind power, wind speed and direction, are backtested against the field measurements and are shown to be in good agreement. The downscaling framework developed is quite promising for the wind power forecasting with the inclusion of wind turbine models into the micro-scale simulation.