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Aerodynamics of Wake Steering

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Handbook of Wind Energy Aerodynamics

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the mechanisms that enable wake steering within a wind farm with a focus on wake steering performed using yaw misaligned turbines as this is the most popular approach to wake steering, although there are others. Wake steering is a type of wind farm control in which wind turbines in a wind farm operate with an intentional yaw misalignment to mitigate the effects of its wake on downstream turbines in order to increase overall combined wind farm energy production. This chapter goes into detail regarding the dominant aerodynamic characteristics that are present when a turbine operates in yaw misaligned conditions and suggests analytical models that can capture these effects. A detailed analysis of large-scale flow structures generated in wind farm control through yaw misalignment is presented. A collection of counter-rotating vortices, produced from a misaligned turbine, deforms the shape of the wake and produces asymmetric effects with oppositely signed yaw angles. These vortices generated by an upstream misaligned turbine can also deflect wakes of downstream non-misaligned turbines. This chapter also addresses the importance of modeling these counter-rotating vortices in analytical models for wind farm control design and for accurately quantifying the impacts of wake steering on gains in power production in larger wind farms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA

    Jennifer King, Paul Fleming, Luis Martinez, Chris Bay & Matt Churchfield

Authors
  1. Jennifer King
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  2. Paul Fleming
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  3. Luis Martinez
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  4. Chris Bay
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  5. Matt Churchfield
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer King .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and, Oldenburg, Germany

    Bernhard Stoevesandt

  2. TNO Netherlands Organisation for Applied Sciences, Petten, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands

    Gerard Schepers

  3. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Brande, Denmark

    Peter Fuglsang

  4. Goldwind Americas, Chicago, IL, USA

    Sun Yuping

Section Editor information

  1. Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO-Energy Transition, Petten, The Netherlands

    Gerard Schepers

  2. Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, Netherlands

    Gerard Schepers

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King, J., Fleming, P., Martinez, L., Bay, C., Churchfield, M. (2021). Aerodynamics of Wake Steering. In: Stoevesandt, B., Schepers, G., Fuglsang, P., Yuping, S. (eds) Handbook of Wind Energy Aerodynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05455-7_60-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05455-7_60-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05455-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05455-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EnergyReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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