Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MERIDIONAL (Multiscale modelling for wind farm design, performance assessment and loading)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-02-01 bis 2025-05-31
The wind industry is developing wind turbines and airborne wind energy devices which span altitudes well above the well-studied surface layer. A full understanding of the unsteady inflow conditions which drive loads and performance at these altitudes is lacking. MERIDIONAL will provide a comprehensively validated tool chain based on an open-source platform which will draw on an integrated knowledge and data hub to allow the efficient and accurate assessment of the performance and loads experienced by onshore, offshore, and airborne wind energy systems. This tool chain can be used for component, device and plant level planning and operation.
MERIDIONAL allows stakeholders to increase wind plant efficiency and reduce material costs through less conservative design.
Aim of the project is to increase the accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of performance and load assessment tools and associated procedures that are commonly used in the industrial design and certification of modern wind energy systems.
Objectives:
1: To demonstrate how enhanced coupled atmosphere-aerodynamic-aeroelastic tools can significantly contribute to a more accurate assessment of the loading and yield of new and existing wind farms.
2: To integrate open access, multi-use, unsteady, time-resolved and coherent wind field prediction tools at different scales and fidelities that can be used in both an academic and industrial context at different locations for performance, load and design calculations for individual and arrays of wind power generators (WT and AWES).
3: To develop models and tools usable for onshore and offshore (including complex terrain), and up to 1km altitude (includes airborne).
4: To develop a knowledge and data hub which will allow users of the tool chain to access the required information for a given site and manage the required data flows to assess performance and loads.
MERIDIONAL allows stakeholders to increase wind plant efficiency and reduce material costs through less conservative design.
Aim of the project is to increase the accuracy and reduce the uncertainty of performance and load assessment tools and associated procedures that are commonly used in the industrial design and certification of modern wind energy systems.
Objectives:
1: To demonstrate how enhanced coupled atmosphere-aerodynamic-aeroelastic tools can significantly contribute to a more accurate assessment of the loading and yield of new and existing wind farms.
2: To integrate open access, multi-use, unsteady, time-resolved and coherent wind field prediction tools at different scales and fidelities that can be used in both an academic and industrial context at different locations for performance, load and design calculations for individual and arrays of wind power generators (WT and AWES).
3: To develop models and tools usable for onshore and offshore (including complex terrain), and up to 1km altitude (includes airborne).
4: To develop a knowledge and data hub which will allow users of the tool chain to access the required information for a given site and manage the required data flows to assess performance and loads.
The following progress have been made:
• Comprehensive inflow and wake repositories have been created for AWES – to be exploited through WindLab.
• Kite-as-a-sensor algorithms are now being used by industry.
• High-fidelity simulations have been carried out for two experimental campaigns and for generic conditions and will be made available through WindLab.
• Methods have been developed for shear and veer inflow profiles for incoporation in the tool chain platform.
• LES simulations and modelling of wind fields has been carried out for AWES. This can be used in the AWES performance models, e.g. AWES simulator.
• Realistic atmospheric flow including various thermal-stability conditions and patterns have been simulated to be made available through WindLab.
• A framework has been developed for testing the effect of inflow conditions on AWES.
• Six DOF fixed-wing AWES simulator has been developed which can be used by the kite power partners.
• Surrogate models have been validated for simulating the impact of dynamic wake meandering to be incorporated in the tool chain platform.
• An analytical model has developed for assessing the impact of complex topography on the performance of single turbines.
• A new unified analytical approach has been developed for assessing wind farm performance validated against the AEP of more than 70 offshore wind farms. This model has been published and made available to the
community.
• A surrogate regression model has been developed for leading edge erosion of AWES aerofoils.
• A surrogate model for generating AWES aerofoil polars has been validated in a wind tunnel.
• A new Gaussian wake model has been developed for AWES performance.
• A control-oriented and location- agnostic surrogate model has been developed to predict Damage Equivalent Loads (DELs) verified against training data.
• The EKF model for estimating wind speed from kite sensors has been integrated into the software framework of one of the industrial partners (KPW).
• A dynamic model developed in the project has been incorporated into one of the industrial partner’s AWES (Kitepower).
• A model has been developed to assess the displacement of emissions as wind farms are connected to the energy system.
Note that many of the above datasets and models will or have been made available through WindLab and will be incorporated into the tool chain in WP5. Some of the models are already being used by the industrial AWES partners
• Comprehensive inflow and wake repositories have been created for AWES – to be exploited through WindLab.
• Kite-as-a-sensor algorithms are now being used by industry.
• High-fidelity simulations have been carried out for two experimental campaigns and for generic conditions and will be made available through WindLab.
• Methods have been developed for shear and veer inflow profiles for incoporation in the tool chain platform.
• LES simulations and modelling of wind fields has been carried out for AWES. This can be used in the AWES performance models, e.g. AWES simulator.
• Realistic atmospheric flow including various thermal-stability conditions and patterns have been simulated to be made available through WindLab.
• A framework has been developed for testing the effect of inflow conditions on AWES.
• Six DOF fixed-wing AWES simulator has been developed which can be used by the kite power partners.
• Surrogate models have been validated for simulating the impact of dynamic wake meandering to be incorporated in the tool chain platform.
• An analytical model has developed for assessing the impact of complex topography on the performance of single turbines.
• A new unified analytical approach has been developed for assessing wind farm performance validated against the AEP of more than 70 offshore wind farms. This model has been published and made available to the
community.
• A surrogate regression model has been developed for leading edge erosion of AWES aerofoils.
• A surrogate model for generating AWES aerofoil polars has been validated in a wind tunnel.
• A new Gaussian wake model has been developed for AWES performance.
• A control-oriented and location- agnostic surrogate model has been developed to predict Damage Equivalent Loads (DELs) verified against training data.
• The EKF model for estimating wind speed from kite sensors has been integrated into the software framework of one of the industrial partners (KPW).
• A dynamic model developed in the project has been incorporated into one of the industrial partner’s AWES (Kitepower).
• A model has been developed to assess the displacement of emissions as wind farms are connected to the energy system.
Note that many of the above datasets and models will or have been made available through WindLab and will be incorporated into the tool chain in WP5. Some of the models are already being used by the industrial AWES partners