To maximize wind power efficiency, wind turbines are increasingly being deployed in wind farms. However, one of the major factors that reduce wind farm efficiency is the wake. Downstream wind turbines experience reduced power production and increased fatigue loads due to the wakes generated by upstream turbines. Despite this, current wind farm layout optimization processes consider only power loss caused by wakes, without accounting for fatigue loads. This omission is primarily due to the complexity of assessing fatigue loads induced by wake.

  To address this issue, PhD student Yujoo Kang and Professor Sang Lee conducted large-eddy simulations (LES) to generate the wake of an upstream wind turbine. Subsequently, they performed aero-elastic simulations at 2,580 wake locations to meticulously analyze wake-turbine overlap effects on floating wind turbines. Through this study, maps of power loss, increased blade and tower loads, and floating platform instability caused by wake interactions was developed. The findings reveal that the lateral distance required to mitigate the increased fatigue load due to wakes is greater than the distance needed to recover power loss.

  This research highlights the necessity of incorporating fatigue load analysis into wind farm layout optimization, extending turbine lifespan and reducing operation and maintenance costs. This study has been published in the December 2024 issue of Physics of Fluids. Physics of Fluids is a Q1 international journal in the field of ‘Physics, Fluids and Plasma’ ranked with the top 4% in JCR.