Analysis of Control-Oriented Wake Modeling Tools Using Lidar Field Results

The objective of this paper is to compare field data from a scanning lidar mounted on a turbine to control-oriented wind turbine wake models. The measurements were taken from the turbine nacelle looking downstream at the turbine wake. This field campaign was used to validate control-oriented tools used for wind plant control and optimization. The National Wind Technology Center in Golden, CO, conducted a demonstration of wake steering on a utility-scale turbine. In this campaign, the turbine was operated at various yaw misalignment set points, while a lidar mounted on the nacelle scanned five downstream distances. Primarily, this paper examines measurements taken at 2.35 diameters downstream of the turbine. The lidar measurements were combined with turbine data and measurements of the inflow made by a highly instrumented meteorological mast on-site. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the lidar data compared to the control-oriented wake models used under different atmospheric conditions and turbine operation. These results show that good agreement is obtained between the lidar data and the models under these different conditions.