Wind farm layout optimization with wakes from fluid dynamics simulations

Twelve actuator disk CFD simulations of an isolated rotor were carried out, whose setups differ only by a variation of the inflow wind profile and derived quantities. By interpolating the resulting set of velocity deficit fields to arbitrary inflow wind speeds at hub height, a CFD based numerical wake model was obtained. This model was compared to wake models from the literature, using the new wind farm modelling software flapFOAM. It was found that the outcome of a gradient-based wind farm layout optimization depends on the choice of wake model. For the CFD wake model, different wake overlap models were compared to full farm CFD simulations. While the total deficit of a row of turbines is described well, the total deficit between column organized turbines is underestimated by flapFOAM.