The numerical flow simulation solvers are extensively used for site assessment in the wind energy industry. However, due to the complexity of flow regimes, it is essential to calibrate the important parameters of such algorithms with measurement data. In this paper, we present a computationally cheap (adjoint) solver that can be coupled with any standard gradient-based optimizer to calibrate the inflow boundary of a CFD solver using the wind speed measurements from the interior of a domain.

We present a model that both (1) reduces the computational effort involved in analyzing design trade-offs and (2) provides a qualitative understanding of the root cause of fatigue and extreme structural loads for wind turbine components from the blades to the tower base. We use this model in conjunction with design loads from high-fidelity simulations to analyze and compare the trade-offs between power capture and structural loading for large rotor concepts.

This work is dedicated to the non-Gaussian statistics of wind velocity jumps and their effect on wind turbines, more specifically on fatigue loads. Wind velocity jumps are commonly simplified to behave in a Gaussian manner. This study discusses how to compare non-Gaussian to Gaussian wind fields properly and shows that the non-Gaussianity in fact can make a difference with respect to fatigue loads. Additionally, we highlight the dependence of our findings on the wind field's coherence.