This project studies the interaction between large wind farms with multiple wind-turbines and the atmospheric boundary layer flow. Because the wind-turbines are placed relatively close together their operation and power production is influenced by the wake created by upstream wind-turbines. The simulations, in agreement with field experiment data, show that power production of wind turbines placed downstream of other turbines can decrease up to 50% with respect to the power produced by free standing wind-turbines. Since this decrease is quite substantial, one of the science goals is to use the simulations in order to understand these effects better. The simulations can also be used to test flow structures and how they depend on the design parameters of the wind farm. XSEDE-ECSS goals are to provide assistance implementing two dimensional domain decomposition and parallel FFT as well as 3D visualization representations to assist in simulations and analysis of large wind farms.
Charles Meneveau, John Hopkins University
David Bock, Lead Visualization Programmer (XSEDE Extended Collaborative Support)
Custom visualization software