Detached eddy simulation of large scale wind turbine wake in offshore environment

The paper presents a study based on detached eddy simulation (DES) to analyze the flow fields generated by large wind turbine rotors in offshore applications. The numerical analysis of the interactions between the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) turbulence and the rotor wake represents an important challenge for the correct evaluation of wake losses in wind farm energy assessment. In this study, the hybrid LES-RANS modeling is used to solve the larger scales of turbulence generated near the sea surface, accounting for the interaction between the surface layer of the ABL, the sea waves, and the rotor wake. The k-ω RANS modeling is used to resolve the smaller scales, and the sea wave motion is handled using a dynamic mesh approach. The wake of a large-scale wind turbine rotor is generated by modeling the blades with the actuator line method. The results demonstrate that accounting for the sea waves affects both the atmospheric boundary layer wind mean vertical velocity profile and the wake generated from the turbine.