Abstracted/indexed

The wind energy industry relies heavily on CFD to analyze new designs. This paper investigates a way to utilize CFD further upstream the design process where lower-fidelity methods are used. We present the first comprehensive 3-D CFD adjoint-based shape optimization of a 10 MW modern offshore wind turbine. The present work shows that, with the right tools, we can model the entire geometry, including the root, and optimize modern wind turbine rotors at the cost of a few hundred CFD evaluations.

A common assumption in the design of wind turbines and wind farms is that the wind field is quite uniform. This assumption is violated during so-called low-level jet events, when there is a distinct peak in the wind speed. Low-level jets modify loads on the turbines and also affect power production. To understand their impact and facilitate better planning and design, we present a detailed climatology of these events over the North Sea, based on offshore measurements and meteorological models.