Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Physics of Fluids · University of Twente

Publication 59 · Atmospheric turbulence

Effect of Coriolis force on a wind farm wake

S. Nagarada Gadde, R.J.A.M. Stevens, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1256, 012026 (2019).

Main finding

Figure 2 reports wind-direction change across the rotor of about 6.4 deg in the CNBL and 15.2 deg in the SBL. Figure 3 shows the wind-farm wake turning anticlockwise near the entrance and clockwise farther downstream, with the stronger and more persistent deflection in the SBL.

Hub-height velocity behind a wind farm in neutral and stable boundary layers
How to read the figure. Hub-height streamwise velocity around and behind a wind farm in a conventionally neutral (left) and a stable (right) boundary layer. The farm wake turns anticlockwise near the entrance and clockwise farther downstream, and the deflection is both stronger and more persistent in the stable case. Figure 2 gives the wind-direction change across the rotor that drives it: about 6.4 degrees in the neutral case and 15.2 degrees in the stable one. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 3. S. Nagarada Gadde and R.J.A.M. Stevens (2019). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

The useful concept is that wake direction changes with height-dependent momentum transport in a rotating boundary layer.

Research context

The cases correlate stability, wind veer, vertical momentum-flux gradients, and wake rotation. The reduced equations omit streamwise and lateral inhomogeneity, pressure perturbations, transient adjustment, and farm blockage, so they do not establish one primary causal pathway.

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