Turbulence Wind Flow Modeling in Complex Terrain. A Comparison Between a Linear Model, a CFD Model and a NWP Model.

Abstract

In this thesis a comparison in wind resources predictions has been made for three different models. Predictions were made for a planned wind farm located at Skottfjället on the west coast of Sweden. Simple linear models have shown difficulty in predicting the wind resource for terrain that are forested and hilly. This thesis concludes that for Skottfjället, which is hilly and forested, the linear model results were not accurate and that predictions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and numerical weather prediction (NWP) models can increase the accuracy. The mean wind speed profiles has been used for the main analysis when making cross predictions and model comparisons with measurements. Further, an annual production estimation has been performed for the whole wind farm, which showed that the linear model compared to the CFD model appeared more random than accurate.