Field-data-based validation of an aero-servo-elastic solver for high-fidelity large-eddy simulations of industrial wind turbines

Abstract. To design the next generations of wind turbines, engineers from the wind energy industry must now have access to new numerical tools, allowing the high-fidelity simulation of complex physical phenomena and thus a further calibration of lower-order models. For instance, the rotors of offshore wind turbines, whose diameters can now exceed 200 m, are highly flexible and fluid–structure interactions cannot be neglected any longer. Accordingly, this paper presents a new aero-servo-elastic solver designed to perform high-fidelity large-eddy simulation (LES) of wind turbines, as well as of rotor–wake interactions classically occurring in wind farms. In this framework, the turbine blades are modeled as flexible actuator lines. In terms of operating parameters (rotation speed and pitch angles) and power output, the solver is first validated against field data from the Westermost Rough offshore wind farm, for three different operation points. A very good agreement between the numerical results and field data is obtained. To push the validation further, additional results are compared to those given by a certified aero-servo-elastic solver used in the industry, which relies on a blade element momentum (BEM) method. The internal loads throughout the first blade and the deflections at the tip are studied in detail, and some discrepancies are observed. Of a reasonable amplitude overall, those are legitimately related to intrinsic modeling differences between the two solvers.