Interaction of vortex stretching with wind power fluctuations

Abstract

The transfer of turbulence kinetic energy from large to small scales occurs through vortex stretching. Also, statistical properties of the subgrid-scale energy fluxes depend on the alignment of the vorticity vector with the principal strain axis. A heuristic analysis of the present study indicates that vortex-stretching and the second invariant of the velocity gradient tensor provide a scale-adaptive parameterization of the subgrid-scale stresses and the local energy fluxes in the wakes of wind turbines. The scale-adaptivity underlies the restricted Euler dynamics of the filtered motion that vortex-stretching plays in the growth of the second invariant of filtered velocity gradient and the local energy transfer. We have analyzed wind power fluctuations in a utility-scale wind farm with $41$ actuator disks. The numerical results show that the spectrum of the wind power fluctuations follows a power law with a logarithmic slope of $-5/3$. Furthermore, POD analysis indicates that the wind power fluctuations depend on the incoming turbulence and its modulation by the wake interactions in wind farms.