Correction and Validation of the Inflow Wind Speed of the Fitch Wind Farm Parameterization

Abstract

Wind farm wakes have a significant impact on momentum and turbulence fluxes within the atmospheric boundary layer， thereby influencing the local climate and environment.Mesoscale numerical models incorporating wind farm parameterizations are powerful tools for studying the climate and environmental impacts of wind farms.In this study， the wind speed and turbulence kinetic energy profiles of the Fitch wind farm parameterization scheme in the WRF mesoscale model are evaluated in the turbine and wake regions using high-resolution Large Eddy Simulations （LES） as “true values” and a method based on the relation derived from classical momentum theory is proposed to correct the grid-inflow wind speed.The method takes into account the blocking effect caused by the grid equivalent thrust and the corrected wind speed is closer to the free-stream wind speed.Results show that the difference between the grid-inflow wind speed from the original Fitch parameterization scheme and the LES is significant and sensitive to the model horizontal resolution.The Fitch-new parameterization with corrected grid-inflow wind speed reduces the relative error in absolute value between grid-inflow and free-stream wind speed to less than 1% across different horizontal resolutions （1000 m， 500 m， and 250 m）.The spatially averaged thrust and output power are consistent with LES results.The Fitch-new parameterization improves the simulated wind speed deficit in the wake zone of wind turbine， especially in the grid with turbine under high resolution.Although the simulated increase in turbulent kinetic energy and its vertical distribution in the wake zone is improved compared to the original Fitch scheme， there are certain issues that require further investigation.

Keywords

• wind farm
• parameterization
• numerical simulation
• model evaluation
• large eddy simulation