Actuator disk modeling of the Mexico rotor with OpenFOAM⋆

Abstract

The implementation of an actuator disk with prescribed constant load for OpenFOAM was first presented by Svenning. In our presentation it was enhanced to compute local loads from local velocities by given aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients. The new model was then verified using the so called MEXICO rotor. Extensive comparisons to the experiments and other simulations were performed. The results for the thrust force was comparable to BEm and measurement wereas torque for the separated case (25 m/s inflow velocity) gave rather wide-spreading results.