Numerical Investigation on Power Outputs of a Wind Turbine Sited over Continuous Hilly Terrain

The location of wind turbines on a continuous hilly terrain has an influence on its power outputs. A CFDbased approach is developed to investigate the complex aerodynamic interference between two wind turbines and the hilly terrain. In this approach,a new three-dimensional model of hilly terrain is established to analyze its viscous effect,and a wind shear is modelled through logarithmic function. They are coupled into the aerodynamics of wind turbine based on"FLUENT"software. Then we apply the proposed method to the NREL Phase VI wind turbines and compare with an experiment in the atmospheric boundary layer(ABL)wind tunnel to validate its accuracy. The simulation also investigates the power outputs of wind turbines on the flat ground and the continuous hilly terrain by changing the location of the wind turbine related to the hilly terrain and the shape of the 1 st hill. The results show that the wind turbine located on the top of the 2 nd hill has the maximum power;and that when the wind turbine is located on the downstream of the hill,the stall zone should be avoided,and the power of the wind turbine located on the side of the hill is higher than that of the wind turbine located on the front and rear of the hilly terrain.