Wind power in forests : wind and effects on loads

Abstract

Within the project V-312, Wind power in forests, researchers and a PhD student at Uppsala University, WeatherTech Scandinavia, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), DTU Wind Energy in Denmark and Teknikgruppen have been cooperating. Within the project atmospheric turbulence measurements with high vertical resolution have been done, also down between the trees, to make it possible to give better theoretical descriptions of the observed properties. Several mesoscale models have also been used to model the above forest winds. The atmospheric measurements have been complemented by wind tunnel measurements using a wind tunnel floor designed with small cylindrical wooden sticks that should simulate the effect of the trees generating a known momentum sink able to affect the flow. The combined new knowledge about the forest boundary layer wind and turbulence properties have been used as input to a dynamical wind turbine computer model, used to simulate the turbine load response to the turbulent wind field.