Wind turbine wind tunnel up the mountain

How do hill slopes affect turbulence in a wind tunnel?

Røkenes and Krogstad investigated a wind tunnel using a basic terrain model with different slopes and hill heights. Straight hill slopes cause flow separations, reduce wind profile homogeneity, and increase turbulence intensities, significantly impacting the flow field.

Do wind turbines work on slope hills?

The study projected the wind-turbine wake profile for flat terrain on the hill terrain flow field. As a result, the performance of turbines installed on the windward side of the hill is well predicted. Compared to the gentle slope hill, the recovery of wind turbine wake in the distant wake region was always faster for the steep slope hill.

Can wind turbines be placed on a hill?

However, the power production of these turbines is reduced due to blockage effects when they are placed at the base of the hill. The performance of turbines placed on the windward side of the hill is well predicted by superimposing the wind-turbine wake profile for the flat terrain on the hilly-terrain flow field.

Does a wind turbine wake recover faster on a hill?

We see that when the wind turbine is located upstream or downstream of the hill, the turbine wake recovers more rapidly than for the flat terrain reference case. However, when the turbine is located on the hilltop the wake recovery is much slower. These wake recovery characteristics are a result of two competing effects.

Can wind turbine wakes delay flow separation on a flat topped hill?

Taylor and Smith (1991) presented a wind-tunnel investigation on the performance of turbines situated on a two-dimensional flat-topped hill. They found that the wakes generated by wind turbines on the hilltop could delay the flow separation on the leeward side of the hill.

How do wind tunnels obtain wind field information about mountain areas?

In summary, conventional wind tunnel approaches can obtain the wind field information about mountain areas by using terrain models and employing a combination of passive devices (e.g., wedge, floor roughness) to generate boundary layers of the same scale as the geometric scaling of structural models placed in them.