Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 39 (1992) 329-341 329

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - - Printed in The Netherlands

A dynamic model of the influence of turbulence on

the power output of a wind turbine*

Y. Sheinman and A. Rosen

Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000,
Israel

Summary
A new method of predicting the influence of wind turbulence on the energy produced by a wind
turbine, is presented. This method is an extension of the commonly stated "static" approach of
calculating the wind energy, that completely neglects the turbulence effects. The new method
takes into account the coupled effects of the wind and turbine dynamics. If the turbine dynomic
characteristics are ignored, while the wind dynamics is still taken into account, a quasi-steady
model is obtained. It is shown that neglecting the coupled dynamic effects due to turbulence may
result in over predictions of more than 10%. The present method exhibits good correlation with
energy measurements.

1. Introduction

In order to predict the energy that will be produced by a certain wind turbine,
positioned at a certain site, during a time period H, it is common to use the
following equation:
OO

E,=H;f(V)P,(V)dV, (I)
0

where f(V) is the velocity frequency at the site (obtained from the velocity
frequency curve), while P, (V) is the power produced by the same wind turbine
in a constant wind speed V. P, (V) is obtained from the turbine's power curve.
For practical application discretization of Eq. (1) is obtained by creating
velocity bins, thus Eq. (1) becomes
N
E,fH ~ f(Vi)Ps(V~), (2)
i=I

*This research was financed by the Israel Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

0167-6105/92/$05.00 1992 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved.

330

where N is the number of velocity bins, Vi is the representative velocity of the

ith bin, and f(V~) is the frequency of that bin.
While creating the velocity bins, average velocities are used. These average
velocities are calculated over relatively long periods of time, where 10 min or 1
h are the most common. While using this kind of data, the turbulent nature of
the wind (characterized by higher frequencies) cannot be taken into account.
In the past, various researchers investigated the influence of turbulence on
the energy produced by wind turbines. A representative example is the research
reported by Healey [1], where he studied the kinetic energy that is theoreti-
cally extractable from the longitudinal fluctuations of wind speed. He found
that the percent excess kinetic energy in the fluctuations, above that computed
on the basis of the hourly mean wind, may be important, depending on the
turbulence characteristics on the site and the machine response time.
The above research, as many others (e.g. [2,3 ] ), is characterized by the fact
that there is an emphasis on the dynamic nature of the wind, while on the other
hand the turbine's various characteristics (for example the dependence of the
turbine efficiency or the wind velocity) are not taken into account.
More recently, Christensen et al. I4] presented a method of calculating the
average output power of a wind turbine, taking into account both the turbu-
lence of the wind and the characteristics of the turbine. The characteristics of
the turbine were introduced through the machine's power coefficient and its
first and second derivatives with respect to velocity. All these three variables
are functions of the average wind velocity. While such an approach presents
an important improvement over the methods that were mentioned above, it
still uses some simplifying assumptions concerning the wind turbine behavior.
In fact it is assumed that the turbine response to variations in the wind speed
is independent of the frequency of these variations. Such an approach is usu-
ally referred to as a "quasi-steady" one. Nevertheless, it is clear that a wind
turbine is an engineering system where the response, as in most of other en-
gineering systems, depends in general on the frequency.
Recently, a new numerical model of a horizontal axis wind turbine [5 ] was
developed by the authors of the present paper. The model is especially suitable
for accurate dynamic simulations of the power output of a wind turbine under
"real" wind conditions. This model was used to study the average output power
of a HAWT in a turbulent wind [6]. Special functions, that define these char-
acteristics, were described and investigated. During the validation of the sim-
ulation model [7], it was shown that it is capable of predicting, quite accu-
rately, the energy production of a wind turbine over any period of time, taking
into account turbulence effects. This of course requires accurate dynamic data
(sampling rate of two data points per second) of the wind speed at the hub
height. The efficiency of the model also allnws real-time simulation, using a
personal computer. Yet, it is clear that such predictions will mean very long
computer runs (of the same order as the period of time which is investigated).
 331

Moreover, in cases where additional information (except for the accumulated

energy) is of interest, such a procedure will usually result in an enormously
high volume of data that will render it impractical for many purposes.
The present paper describes a method of extending Eq. (2) in such a way
that the dynamic characteristics of the wind turbine and the wind at the site,
namely the turbulence, will be taken into account. While such an extension
means certain complications, the application of the method remains quite sim-
ple if the necessary data is available. It is important to indicate that the above
mentioned method of direct simulation of the power output at a certain site
[5], usually requires a change of the wind measuring technique and data ac-
quisition methods that are commonly used on most site~. On the other hand,
the new method of predicting energy production, described in the present pa-
per, requires data which is usually available at every site where wind measure-
ments are carried out.

2. Theoretical background

The wind velocity v, measured at a certain location, along a period of time

T,, can be described as follows:
v=V+u, (3)
where V is the average velocity along that period of time, and u is the gust
velocity.
The intensity of turbulence, Iv, is defined as
Io--ao/V_, (4)
where the standard deviation a~ is

u2dt)lT.J . (5)

In another paper [6] the case of a sinusoidal gust was studied, namely
u= A sin 2~ft, (6)
A is the amplitude of the sinusoidal gust, while f is its frequency. In this case:
IofA/x/~ V. (7)
It was shown [6] that in the case of a sinusoidal gust, the average power pro-
duced by the turbine, Pc (f, V,A ), can be expressed using the following equation:
Pc(f, V,A ) -- Ps ( y ) [1 + 3J( V)I~,mod,I. (8)
_Ps(_V), as defined above, is the output power of the wind turbine in the case of
a uniform constant wind, having a velocity _V.The function J(_V), introduced
332

by Christensen et al. [4], is a function of the "static" characteristics of the

wind turbine. The function J(_V) that was calculated for the wind turbine Ves-
tas V25, is shown in Fig. 1. Iv.rood1is a "modified" intensity of turbulence. The
modification is needed in order to account for the influence of the dynamic
characteristics of the turbine on its response to the wind's fluctuations. In the
case of a sinusoidal gust, Iv,rood1 is defined as:
L,modl "- L G~ ([, V). (9)
G~(f, V_) is a correction function that accounts for the dynamic characteristics
of the wind turbine. It is a function of the frequency and average velocity _V.It
was found [6] that for practical intensities of turbulence the dependence of
GI (f, V_) on the gust amplitude is very small and thus can be neglected. In Fig.
2 the functions GI (f, _V) (as presented in [6] ), for different values of _V,in the
range of frequencies 0.01 < / < 1 Hz, are presented. GI(f,V) was calculated by
using a complete and detailed dynamic model of the Vestas V25 wind turbine
[5 ], including the characteristics of the electric network at the Beit-Yatir site
in the southern part of Israel. It should be emphasized that the technical data
available from the manufacturer of that turbine was limited and incomplete
for an accurate calculation of G~(f,V_). Therefore, different design details of
the turbine were estimated (especially the control law), based on inspection
of the turbine which is located at Beit-Yatir.
When a "real" wind is considered, it can be presented as a sum of an infinite
number of random gusts having different frequencies and amplitudes. In the
derivations of [6] the description of Shinozuka [8,9] was adopted. This de-
scription makes use of the power spectral density (PSD) function of the wind,
1,5

A
0.5
71
to
0-

-0,5-

-I
7 7:5 8 8:5 9 915 10 10.5 1'1 11'.5 12
V [m/sec]
Fig. 1. The function $(_V) for the Vestas V25 wind turbine.
 333

7 ..........................................................
i~i~:~\~ ..........................................................................
,v-~ m/~o

...._...... ",, ~ ......

5 ...........................................]]II I I:::::: ::..............~:.............. X .............................................. ~ = 9 m l S ~
/ ~m/'i/I - .... - ,
/ ".... "" \ V = I O mlsec
o
"I31 .................................
" l : ' ~ m ~ ........................iill
l l i I j~ ' = . - ' ~ - ~ " : ~ l
.................. , I V= 11 mlsec
.............

[ ....... "- \ [ V = 1 2 m/see

,
. . . . . . . . . . . .

~ .....
. . . . . . . . . . . .

.... ; ; ~ : ~ ...........
-

8.~1 . . . . . . . b:+ 1
f, Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 2. The GI if, V_) functions for the Vestas V25 wind turbine.

Surf). In this case the turbulence intensity Iv, as defined by Eqs. (4) and (5),
is given by
Ns ,~1/2/
~o=oo/~= ,~ soot,)~v) I I y. (10)

Equation (10) is based on a discretization of the frequency spectrum which is

divided into N, bins, where Af is the "width" of each bin and is given by
Af-f./Ns, (11)
where [, is the upper cut-off frequency.
Based on the above equations, in the case of a "real" wind Iu,modlis defined
as (see [6 ] )
N. ]1/2/v "
Iu.modl=[i----~Su(ii)el (fi, V) (12)

It can easily be shown that in the case of a sinusoidal gu.,t Eq. (12) becomes
identical to Eq. (9).
There are various methods of describing S. (f) at a site (see review in [10] ).
In the present paper an S. expression that was suggested by Kristensen et al.
[11] and Dragt [12] will be used. When adjusted to the Beit-Yatir ~ite, this
expression becomes
fS,(f) = 10.25 tz2p/(1+ 161.5ps/3), (13)
where
334

]~-fz/V (14)
and z is the height above the ground that in the present case is taken equal to
the hub height.

3. D e s c r i p t i o n of the n e w m e t h J d

As indicated above, the usual power curves which are supplied by the man-
ufacturer do not include the coupled effectsof wind turbulence and dynamic
characteristicsof the turbine. Thus the firststep of applying the new method
includes the preparation of modified power curves that take into account the
above effects.Each curve is not only relatedto a certain turbine,but itis also
associated with a certain site (through itsPSD, Su (f)) and a certainintensity
of turbulence, I~. The following steps are followed while preparing the new
curves:
Ca) For a certain average wind velocity V, the intensityof turbulence (Iv)
determines av.
(b) Ifa~ is known, then Su(f) can be obtained (see Eq. (13)).
(c) Iv.modlis calculatedusing Eq. (12).
(d ) Substitutionof Iv.modlin Eq. (8) yieldsthe modified power curve Pc (_V,Iv).
In Figs.3a-3f a complete set of power curves for the V25 turbine,located at
the Beit-Yatir site (see Eq. (13) for Su([) ), are presented for six equal tur-
bulence bins. The turbulence intensity (Iv) ranges between 0.025 and 0.175,
thus the width of each bin is0.025.The mid value of Iv of each bin ischosen as
the representativeintensityof turbulence value of the bin. The curves are given
for the important range 7 ~< Y < 12 m/s. There is no problem of increasingthis
range, if necessary. In each figure,for the purpose of comparison, two other
curves are also presented: The "static" curve of Ps(V), and the quasi-steady
average power curve Pq8 (Y,I~).The last curve is obtained after following the
above described procedure of obtaining _Pc(Y,L), but taking GI (f,V) as equal
to unity.
As expected, itisclearlyshown that the influenceof turbulence increasesas
its intensityincreases.At low average velocities( V < 9.6 m/s) the turbulence
results in an increase of the average power, while an opposite trend is shown
at higher average velocities.The relativeeffectof the turbulence isnmch larger
at the high velocities (V > 9.6 m/s). At the low velocitiesthe differencesbe-
tween _Pc(_V,I~)and Pq~ (Y,l~,)are very small. In general,the deviationbetween
P~(_V) and -Pc(V,I~) is much larger than the deviation between P~ (V) and
_Pq~(V). At an average wind speed of V = 12 m/s, the deviationbetween P-c(V,I~)
and P8 (V) is2.8 times largerthan the deviationbetween _Pq~(V,I~) and P~ (V).
Since the higher wind speeds are associated with the more significantcontri-
butions to the energy, the importance of using _Pc(V_,Iv)instead of _Pqs(V_,Iv)is
clear. It should be noted that at high intensitiesof turbulence (Fig. 3f) and
 335

160

40J...................................................................
120 .............................................
2.......................................................
~
Psiy), _Pqs(~,lv)i

2O
7 715 8 815 9 915 I0 I0.5 1'I 11'.5 12
V [m/sec]
(a)

160[

120 ......................................~~
...

4o. ~ ~ ) ..................J

207 715 d 815 9 915 I0 I0.5 1'I 11'.5 12

V [m/sec]
(b)
Fig. 3. Comparison between the corrected P,::(V_,Iv), quasi-steady k q (_V,I~) and static P, (V), power
curves. (a) 0.025 ~<Iv < 0.05, (b) 0,05~<Iv<0.075, (c) 0.075~<I~<0.1, (d) 0.1~/~<0.125, (e)
0.125 ~<I, < 0.15, (f) 0.15~<I~<0.175.

high wind velocities (_V=12 m/s), there is an overprediction of 22% while

using the average static power Ps (_v), as compared to the corrected power
Pc(v,Iv).
T-he corrected power curves will now replace the static curves in predicting
the produced energy. But these curves are functions of the intensity of turbu-
336

so-..ec~.,,v), ..........................
~ .................~ I
..............

oo.....~,,.~f!.~,,,1 m
.~.'..~, j
o i.

2O . . . . . . . . I
7 7,5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10,5 11 11.5 12
v_.[m/sec]

(c)
160 '-
ps

100 ........................................................................
S ....................
"Pc'~I~!........

~'c~,wv) V ........-.; l
oo1.........~ ............................ :o,~,,v,I...............
,o~....p~.~. .................................................................
p_o~.,,v) j ..............................

I
20,1 . . . . . . . . .
7 7.5 S 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12
V_[m/sec]

(d)
Fig. 3. ( C o n t i n u e d ) .

lence. Therefore, it is necessary to find a method to quantify this intensity.In

order to do that itwil! be assumed that there is a certain turbulence frequency
distribution inside each velocitybin. This distributionmay vary from one ve-
locitybin to another, and it is typical of the site.
In order to check this assumption, the intensity of turbulence frequency
curves for the Beit-Yatir sitewere plotted and are shown in Fig. 4. These plots
 337
160"

1+o .................................................................................... Ps

120"

100.............................................. ~ - -
+ +o . . . . . . . . .

,o ~ ..........+??~+'+ ............................ =,:,,,+,v,,v, ...............................

Ps~ ec(v, lv)

2O
7 7;5 8 8:5 9 915 1() 16.5 1'1 11'.5 12
V [m/sec]

(e)
160"

140-

120 .........................................................................................................................
":::" ..............

100-

...............................................................................p ~ ( ~

.Pc

~, ~ ] + . , ~ ~ ............... p~,~) ......................................

207 715 +8 6:5 9 '

9.5 + 16.5 1'1 11'.5 12
10
V_[m/sec)

(f)
Fig.3. (Continued).

are based on data collected for almost one year, and include results for hourly
wind velocity averages and intensities of turbulence. It can be seen that there
are differences between the curves for various average velocities, nevertheless
all of them exhibit a typical normal distribution curve. In order to further
support the idea of intensity of turbulence distribution, the curves which are
338

[1] V=7 m/sec

2 ...................................................................................................

[2] V=S m/sec

[3] V=9 m/sec

[4] V=lO m/sec

[5] V---11 m/sec

[6] V=12 m/sec

0
o o,bs o11 o.~s 0:2 o.2s
Iv
Fig. 4. Intensity of turbulence frequency curves, for various average velocity bins, as oLtained at
Beit-Yatir.

shown in Fig. 4, that were obtained from a measuring mast near the turbine at
Beit-Yatir, were compared with similar curves obtained from measurements
that were gathered at another mast, located at a distance of 500 m from the
first one. Good correlation was found between the two sets of curves. This
indicates that the intensity of turbulence distribution seems to be, among other
properties, a representative characteristic of the wind at a certain site. The
curves in Fig. 4 include turbulence intensities up to/~ ffi0.225. The frequencies
of occurrence of higher turbulence intensities were found to be very small and
thus can be neglected.
In order to calculate the energy production along a time period H, each av-
erage wind velocity bin will be further subdivided into intensity of turbulence
bins. Thus Eq. (2) will be extended as follows:

E c - H ~ f(Vi)
i----1 j----
fm./(I~j)Pc(V,,Iv.j)
-
] , (15)

where I~j is the representative intensity of turbulence of thejth bin of intensity

of turbulence (within the ith velocity bin). There are Mi such "sub-bins" within
each velocity bin. -Pc(Vi,Iv#) is the representative corrected power of that bin,
while fm.i (I~j) is its frequency.
If -Pc(V/,I~j) in Eq. (15) is replaced by _Pqs(Vi,I~#), then the energy produc-
tion according to the quasi-steady approach, Eqs, will be obtained.
4. Results

In order to validate and assess the new method, it was decided to apply it
firstto a period of H = 153 h of detailed measurements at Beit-Yatir [7 ].Based
 339

TABLE 1

Comparison between the calculated and measured energies of the Vestas V25 wind turbine at Beit-
Yatir for 153 h

Variable Predicted energy (kWh) Deviation from E~ (%)

Es 13360
Eq~ 12770 -4.4
Ec 12135 -9.2
E~im 11980 -10.3
Em~ 11810 -11.6

TABLE 2

Predicted yearly energy production of a Vestas V25 wind turbine at Beit-Yatir

Variable Predicted energy (kWh) Deviation from Es ( % )

E~ 456852 -
Eqs 440124 3.8
E 416044 9.1

on these measurements, appropriate velocity frequency curves and intensity

of turbulence curves were plotted (based on 10 minutes averaging periods of
time), and used for the calculations. Each velocity bin was subdivided into
intensity of turbulence bins of 0.025 width (0-0.025, 0.025-0.050, etc.). Based
on this information, Ec and Eq~ were calculated. In addition, a direct real time
simulation of the entire 153 h, based on the detailed measured wind data, was
carried out. By integrating the calculated power along the entire period of time,
the output energy based on the direct simulation, E~im, was obtained. The de-
tailed measurements included also direct accurate recording of the output power.
Integration of this power yielded Eme~.
In Table I all the four energies are presented. In addition, the percentage
deviation between Es and the other three is also indicated. It is interesting to
note that Es results in an over estimation of 11.6% compared to Er~e~. The
direct simulation is the closest to the measurements (not surprising in light of
the good results of [7] ). Ec gives a 2.8% deviation compared to the measure-
ments, while the quasi-steady approach increases this deviation to 8.1%.
The results of Table 1 indicate the importance of taking into account the
turbulence influences while trying to predict the energy production at a certain
site. Yet, it can be argued that a period of 153 h is not representative and its
results may be misleading. Therefore, calculations for an entire year were also
carried out. In this case there were no measurements to support the calcula-
tions, but based on the good agreement between Ec and the measurements
(Eme~) reported in Table 1, it is expected that the calculation will give a good
340

indication on the influence that turbulence may have on the yearly production
of energy at that site. The results are presented in Table 2.
In the calculations of Table 2 a Rayleigh velocity frequency curve was as-
sumed, with an average yearly velocity of 7.1 m/s. The intensity of turbulence
curves of Fig. 4 were used, with the power spectral density of Eq. (13). The
results of Table 2 are very similar to those of Table 1, indicating that using Eq.
(2) to predict the energy production may result in an over prediction of almost
10%.

5. C o n c l u s i o n s

A new method of taking the influence of turbulence into account, while pre-
dicting the energy that will be produced by a certain wind turbine at a certain
site, was presented. The method is an extension of the existing technique that
does not take these effects into consideration. The new method is based on
data that is usually available at the majority of sites and does not require any
significant changes or cause complications to the acquisition of wind data. The
complete method includes dynamic effects of both the wind and ~he turbine.
In cases where the dynamic characteristics of the turbine are neglected, a quasi-
steady method approximation is obtained.
The new complete method is based on drawing new power curves of the wind
turbine. These curves are typical not only to the turbine, but also to a certain
site, thus presenting the coupled wind and turbine dynamic characteristics.
The new method exhibits good agreement with measurements. It shows that
for sites similar to the Beit-Yatir site, predictions that neglect turbulence ef-
fects may result in over predictions of more than 10%, while trying to estimate
the produced energy.

Acknowledgements

The authors would liketo thank the Delek Company and Dr. M. Hirsch for
making available their measurements at Beit-Yatir. Thanks are also due to
the Beit-Yatir people for theirassistancewith the measurements, and to Mrs.
Goodman for typing the manuscript.

References

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 341

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