Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Professor at the University of Twente

Wind energy · Turbulence · Environmental flows

Publication 47 · Wind-farm flow

Flow Structure and Turbulence in Wind Farms

R.J.A.M. Stevens, C. Meneveau, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 49, 311-339 (2017).

Read the article Open-access version (university repository)

Main finding

Wind-farm flow is a coupled multiscale problem: turbine wakes interact with atmospheric-boundary-layer momentum supply, farm development, layout, stability, and larger-scale atmospheric conditions.

Coupled wake boundary layer model predictions against large-eddy simulation results
How to read the figure. Coupled wake boundary layer model predictions (lines) against large-eddy simulation results (symbols), for the third turbine row and for the fully developed region of a wind farm. Farm performance depends both on the turbine wakes and on the atmospheric momentum supply that replaces the energy they extract, and a model has to carry both. This is a review figure; the result it summarises comes from the primary work the review surveys. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 9. R.J.A.M. Stevens and C. Meneveau (2017). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

It provides a coherent map of how individual wakes, whole-farm adjustment, and the atmosphere must be treated together.

Research context

The review synthesizes Large eddy simulation studies of the effects of alignment… (read the finding), Coupled wake boundary layer model of wind farms (read the finding), Dependence of optimal wind-turbine spacing on wind-farm length (read the finding), Generalized coupled wake boundary layer model (read the finding), and related wake/ABL studies. Subsequent work extends or qualifies that synthesis: Modeling space-time correlations of velocity fluctuations in wind farms (read the finding), Characterizing the Coherent Structures Within and Above Large Wind… (read the finding), Modeling dynamic wind direction changes in large eddy simulations… (read the finding), A three-dimensional dynamic mode decomposition analysis of wind farm… (read the finding), Turbulence coherence in wind farms (read the finding), and later finite-farm/blockage work.

Coverage of this research

  • Knowable Magazine — Bumpy air boosts wind power, . An explanation of wind-farm turbulence drawing on the Stevens–Meneveau review.

View in the complete publication list Related wind-farm research