| dc.description.abstract | Unsteady wind is characterized by low energy content and large fluctuations. A
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based method for capturing wind energy in a
fluctuating free-stream, supported by analytical formulations, is investigated in this
paper. We implemented unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver to
control the dynamic mesh motion. Using an urban wind resource, characteristic
fluctuation frequencies at 0.5 Hz, 1.0 Hz, and 2.0 Hz have been selected to
demonstrate the enhanced wind energy capture. The numerical energy coefficient
marginally changed from 0.36 at 0.5 Hz to 0.37 at both 1 Hz and 2 Hz cases. The
results reveal that the highest frequency of fluctuation with meaningful energy content in
unsteady wind condition is ≈1 Hz. The study findings promote our understanding about
the energy associated with short-period fluctuations reflecting realistic unsteady wind
environment. Additionally, the present study approach to analyze wind energy capture
on a H-Darrieus wind rotor in a fluctuating free-stream can be extrapolated to other
slightly complex VAWT configurations | en_US |
