Minor: Energy Studies
Faculty Advisor: David Richter, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Research Area: Transformative Wind

Flow and Turbulence Characteristics at Hub Height for Offshore Wind Energy Production (Spring 2024)

Interest in offshore wind has continued to grow over the last few decades as a vital component in the renewable energy landscape. The wind speeds offshore are higher and generally more consistent in magnitude and direction owing to the aerodynamically smoother surface of the ocean, and turbines can be built at a larger scale which generates greater and more reliable energy production. However,  there are several risks and disadvantages including the possibility of hurricanes, higher wind speeds, and waves/swell. Difficulties with the installation and protection of wind turbines and submarine cables due to rough sea conditions as well as their distance from land also makes offshore wind turbines harder to maintain and more risky and expensive than onshore wind. Furthermore, the production costs for offshore wind turbines are not yet competitive with other clean energy alternatives. So, a better understanding of the range of conditions (i.e. wind speeds and turbulence levels) that one might expect is extremely important for turbine designers so that they can lower costs by constructing turbines that can provide reliable energy even under the loads of strong and variable winds.

The objective of this research will be to investigate the wind and turbulence conditions at hub height given certain wind and wave characteristics. The research will entail using Large-eddy simulations (LES) to simulate the marine boundary layer over resolved surface waves in order to extract wind velocities and examine the turbulence that would occur at the height of a wind turbine hub. Wave and wind properties  will be varied to understand how things like wind-wave alignment affect turbulence and wind shear levels. The turbulence characteristics will strongly depend on the wave conditions, and this relationship will be investigated in this research.

This research project will consist of three different phases. The first will involve understanding the current state of the science in the area of marine boundary layer turbulence as it pertains to offshore wind energy production. This will be followed by learning to use and modifying the LES/wavy code. The project will culminate in the design and execution of a series of numerical simulations with separate cases based on certain wind/wave properties that a wind turbine would experience to observe the wind and turbulence conditions given these properties.

Final Report