Wind field and pressure characteristics on wind turbine surface under moving thunderstorms

Abstract

Based on computational fluid dynamics and large-eddy simulation technologies, a numerical simulation method of a moving thunderstorm field is established by considering the impinging jet model. In addition, the influence of movement speed of the storm center and jet velocity changes on the characteristics of the wind field is presented. By drawing horizontal wind speed radial profile curves, the vertical profile curves of horizontal wind velocity, radial wind profile curves of vertical wind speed, and transient wind speed characteristics of a moving thunderstorm downburst are illustrated. The results demonstrate that the wind field of a moving thunderstorm exhibits clear asymmetric characteristics. As the height from the ground increases, the horizontal wind speed first increases and then decreases. The extreme value of the horizontal wind speed appears at the position of (0.01–0.03) Djet (where Djet is the jet spout diameter) near the ground, which is consistent with the characteristics of a static thunderstorm wind field. Simultaneously, the distribution characteristics of wind pressure on the surface of wind turbines under moving thunderstorms is further studied. By considering variations of the wind attack angle, jet velocity, and moving speed, the results of wind pressure on the tower and blades of the wind turbine are presented. The coupling of the moving speed and jet velocity has a significant influence on the wind field and pressure on the wind turbine surface.

Keywords

• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Moving thunderstorm
• Wind field
• Impinging jet
• Wind turbine
• Wind pressure characteristics