Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Physics of Fluids · University of Twente

Publication 38 · Wind-farm flow

Wind Turbine Large-Eddy Simulations on Very Coarse Grid Resolutions using an Actuator Line Model

L.A. Martínez Tossas, R.J.A.M. Stevens, C. Meneveau, 34th Wind Energy Symposium, AIAA SciTech, AIAA 2016-1261, 1-7 (2016).

Main finding

Wake-field agreement is insufficient evidence for actuator loading or power fidelity. Grid spacing, force width, blade-point spacing, and validation target must be audited separately.

Angle of attack, axial velocity, drag and lift along the blade at coarse resolutions
How to read the figure. Angle of attack (a), axial velocity (b), and normalised drag (c) and lift (d) along the blade for actuator-line simulations on very coarse grids. These are the quantities that wake-field agreement does not guarantee: matching the wake is not sufficient evidence that the actuator loading is right. Grid spacing, force width, blade-point spacing and the choice of validation target each need auditing separately. Figure 1 carries the power and thrust half. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 4. L.A. Martínez Tossas et al. (2016). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

A credible wake deficit can coexist with biased actuator loading and power when coarse filtering corrupts the sampled induction.

Research context

The study exposes the projection-kernel and sampled-induction bias that appears when an actuator-line rotor is placed on a very coarse grid. Later PIV validation, farm-scale rotor-model comparisons, grid-versus-actuator-point sweeps, and tip-loading corrections test separate parts of that error hierarchy.

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