Mesoscale to microscale simulations for wind energy applications

Tina Chow, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley

Abstract: Wind turbines sit at the very bottom of the atmospheric boundary layer, where winds are highly turbulent and land-surface interactions may be strong. Variations in surface topography, from shallow depressions to steep mountains, also greatly affect flow development. High-resolution simulations of atmospheric flow are currently being developed to provide predictions for wind turbine micrositing and operational wind power forecasting. Here we present an overview of mesoscale to microscale simulations at real wind farms with complex terrain, including implementation of detailed models for turbine wake effects. The Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model is used here in grid nested configurations starting from the mesoscale (~ 10 km resolution) and ending with fine scale resolutions (~10 m) suitable for large-eddy simulation (LES) and comparison to field observations.

About the Speaker: Tina’s current research focuses on the atmospheric boundary layer, the lowest region of the Earth’s atmosphere, which is where we live and where weather events take place. Her research group aims to improve the numerical models used for weather prediction and air quality forecasts. She and her students have worked on predicting how winds are affected by complex mountainous terrain, how plumes spread in an urban environment, and how wind turbines respond in turbulent flow, among other applications. Tina received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. She spent one year in the Atmospheric Sciences Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a post-doctoral researcher. Tina joined the UC Berkeley Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2005. At Cal, Tina teaches fluid mechanics, computer programming, and numerical methods to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Category
Start date
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019, 3 p.m.
Location

St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, 2 3rd Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414

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