The micro-siting of wind turbines on a complex terrain requires extra attention because it may involve so-called "flow separation zones". These regions may results in undesirable high level of turbulence and shear, possibly harmful for wind turbines. This complex non-linear phenomenon is hardly reproduced with great precision in standard numerical modeling. The aspects of the separated region are closely coupled with the behavior of the turbulence model of interest and on the boundary conditions considered. The principal objective of this project is thus to develop a numerical model capable of capturing flow separation with a certain level of accuracy. The proposed method is based on the RANS k−ω SST turbulence model. This model is better adapted than usual RANS models used in wind engineering and is recognised for its good behavior in adverse pressure gradient flows and separated flows but was mainly used in aerodynamic applications. A set of boundary conditions is therefore proposed to model the equilibrium atmospheric boundary layer with this turbulence model. The adaptation in this work was achieved with the OpenFOAM CFD toolbox.
| Date | 8 Sept 2011 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Louis Dufresne (Supervisor) & Christian Masson (Co-supervisor) |
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Boudreault, L.-É. (Author),
Dufresne (Supervisor) & Masson (Co-supervisor),
8 Sept 2011Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Mechanical Engineering