Qualitative analysis of wind-turbine wakes over hilly terrain

In this work, wind-turbine wakes are studied over flat and hilly terrains. Measurements made by using stereoscopic PIV are compared to data obtained from numerical simulations using RANS equations and an actuator-disc method. The numerical and experimental data show similar qualitative trends, indicating that the wind-turbine wake is perturbed by the presence of the hills. Additionally, a faster flow recovery at hub height is seen with the hilly terrain, indicating that the hills presence is beneficial for downstream turbines exposed to wake-interaction effects. The Jensen wake model is implemented over the hilly terrain and it is shown that this model cannot accurately capture the wake modulations induced by the hills. However, by superimposing a wind-turbine wake simulated over flat terrain on the hilly-terrain flow field, it is illustrated that the commonly-used wake-superposition technique can yield reasonable results if the used wake model has sufficient accuracy.