Estimation of Ambient Turbulence Intensity over Complex Terrain

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to develop and validate a framework that can handle with ambient flow modeling of operational wind farms over complex terrain. The developed framework estimates the ambient turbulence intensities, which affect the fatigue loads, energy yields and machinery failures, with respect to several incoming flow parameters such as ambient wind speed, altitude and slope angle. Model has been validated with ambient normal turbulence intensities of IEC-61400 standards and reference speed-up models for representative incoming flow conditions, terrain slope angle and altitude based on two wind turbines in the same row that are in the wake of each other for two specific wind direction. The comparison shows fair agreement with the modeled ambient turbulence intensities.