Wind speed deviations in complex terrain

Abstract

Abstract. Wind farm sites within complex terrain are subject to local wind phenomena, which have a huge impact on a wind turbine's annual energy production. To reduce investment risk, an extensive site evaluation is therefore mandatory. Stationary long-term measurements are supplemented by CFD simulations, which are a commonly used tool to analyse and understand the three-dimensional wind flows above complex terrain. Though being under heavy research, such simulations still show a huge sensitivity for various input parameters like terrain, atmosphere and numerical setup. Within this paper, a different approach aims to measure instead of simulate wind speed deviations above complex terrain by using a flexible, airborne measurement system. An unmanned aerial vehicle is equipped with a standard ultrasonic anemometer. The uncertainty of the system is evaluated against stationary anemometer at different heights and shows very good agreement, especially in mean wind speed (

Authors 5

1. Christian Ingenhorst corresponding Aachen Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   IME Aachen GmbH Institut für Maschinenelemente und Maschinengestaltung , Aachen , 52074 , Germany

   Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering , Aachen , 52062 , Germany

   IME Aachen GmbH Institut für Maschinenelemente und Maschinengestaltung, Aachen, 52074, Germany

   Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering, Aachen, 52062, Germany

2. Georg Jacobs Aachen Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering , Aachen , 52062 , Germany

   Institute for Maschine Elements and Systems Engineering, Aachen, 52062, Germany

3. Laura Stößel Aachen Center for Wind Power Drives (CWD)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Wind Power Drives , RWTH Aachen , Aachen , 52074 , Germany

   Center for Wind Power Drives, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, 52074, Germany

4. Ralf Schelenz Aachen Center for Wind Power Drives (CWD)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Wind Power Drives , RWTH Aachen , Aachen , 52074 , Germany

   Center for Wind Power Drives, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, 52074, Germany

5. Björn Juretzki
   Affiliation as printed

   IME Aachen GmbH Institut für Maschinenelemente und Maschinengestaltung , Aachen , 52074 , Germany

   IME Aachen GmbH Institut für Maschinenelemente und Maschinengestaltung, Aachen, 52074, Germany