The analysis of turbulence intensity based on wind speed data in onshore wind farms

• Published in: Renewable energy Vol. 123; pp. 756 - 766
• Main Authors: Ren, Guorui, Liu, Jinfu, Wan, Jie, Li, Fei, Guo, Yufeng, Yu, Daren
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2018
• Subjects: Daily periodicity; Time-varying; Turbulence intensity model; Wind speed; Turbulence intensity model; Wind speed; Time-varying; Daily periodicity
• ISSN: 0960-1481; 1879-0682; 1879-0682
• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.080

Wind speed turbulence intensity is crucial for wind turbine structure design and aerodynamic loads calculation. In the study, the actual turbulence intensity observations are compared with the Normal Turbulence Model defined by IEC standard. The results show that the Normal Turbulence Model overestimates the turbulence intensity. A new turbulence intensity model is proposed based on the actual observations, which shows better performance than the Normal Turbulence Model. Then the variation pattern of turbulence intensity during a day is analyzed. The turbulence intensity exhibits obvious daily periodicity in two wind farms. Furthermore, the causes of daily periodicity are discussed and verified by the wind speed dataset 3. Finally, an improved time-varying turbulence intensity model is developed according to the daily periodicity. •A new turbulence intensity model is proposed based on the actual observations.•Turbulence intensity exhibits obvious daily periodicity in some wind farms.•The physical causes of daily periodicity are discussed.•A time-varying turbulence intensity model is developed based on daily periodicity.