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Complex Flow Research Perspectives
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This Document Contains the Following Data TypesGE Confidential
Wind Plant Reliability
Complex Flow Research Perspectives
Stefan Kern, GE Global Research, MunichAugust 14, 2013
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Focus on Wind Plant
Holistic plant-level viewTurbine focus
Design
Siting
Operation
Reduce LCOE by improved design, operation & micrositing
Opt. performance w/ clean blades in free-stream
Opt. plant power curve
Identical units according to site wind class
Optimized product- & component mix
„Cooperative“ control;use excess marginsAs independent units
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Complex Flow Challenges
Design Siting Control
• Incomplete physics understanding• Lack of data / limited exploitation of existing fleet data• Limited modeling capabilities, standards lagging behind
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Needs
Understand the problem & entitlement• How much wake losses can we recover?• Excess margins or underestimating loads?
Improved engineering practices & models • Hierarchy of models - modular fidelity• Proven & validated against field data• Fleet data mining
New technology• Rethink turbine design & siting• Park level control strategies
Both internal R&D and collaborations with external partners
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Learning from Field Data
Wake behind single turbine
Wind velocity [m/s]
Std dev95% conf intmean
Hei
ght a
bove
gro
und
[m]
Buffalo Gap wind park - one out of hundreds in the GE fleet
Full scale flow field measurements• Averaged velocity profiles of isolated/interacting wind
turbines pairs & wake turbulence• Sparse data
Operational data of GE fleet• Recorded 10min data of hundreds of wind parks
over many years• Data quality can be challenging• How to define/measure ideal farm performance?
Gaps: - Best practices for fleet data analysis- Exploiting large data to full extent- Limited load data inside plant along with
detailed inflow conditions
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Learning from Scaled Experiments
Gaps: - Scalability questions for small scale models- Medium scale experiments in largest facilities
Single turbines• Validation data for predictions of blade aerodynamic
performance with controlled inflow
• Typically focussed on near wake, limited far wake data
Interacting turbines• Typically models with D<50cm in ABL wind tunnels
• Limited flexibility in controlling turbine operation
Source http://wire.epfl.ch
Source http://wind.nrel.gov
NREL turbine in NASA AMES wind tunnel
Wind farm in ABL wind tunnel
MEXICO experiment, DNW wind tunne
Source http://www.ecn.nl
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Engineering Models
Rotor & wake• Largely focused on optimizing standalone unit performance
• Limited capability to capture complex inflow
Farm level• Limited to steady state, assumption of constant wind
direction and wind speed
• Following IEC certification requirements/common practice
Gaps: - Comprehensive calibration of farm models to fielddata/high fidelity models
- Capturing of unsteady effects & complex terrain
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
High Fidelity Simulation & HPC
Gaps: - Comprehensive validation- Largely limited to simple terrain- Flowdown to engineering tools- Exploiting large data to full extent
PSU Cyber Wind Facility
Rotor & wake• Capture complex inflow for detailed rotor aero & wake
• Long term vision: replace expensive field tests
• Assessing modeling approaches & numerical methods
Farm level• Assess wake impact, control strategies & new architectures
• Reduce wake losses and fatigue loading
Partners: Penn State, NREL, LLNL, UC Louvain
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Concerted Field Tests & Simulation
Source: energy.sandia.gov
…key to advance and validate modeling capabilities
Full scaleWind farm
Red. scaleFew turbines
Test setup Simulation
Wind tunnelContr. cond
Measmt tech
Source: mexnext.org
Source: NRELSource: Texas Tech University
Distance from rotor plane (m)
Source: mexnext.org
@#GECON&*Sandia Wind Plant Reliability Workshop
August 14 2013
Conclusions
• Great momentum & progress in complex flow research− Experimental facilities− Measurement technology− Simulation
• Overcome barriers to develop & deploy new technologies− Demonstrate business value− Flow down to engineering practices and tools
