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Flow visualization using momentum and energy transport tubes and applications to turbulent flow in wind farms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2013

Johan Meyers  and
Charles Meneveau
Johan Meyers*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 300A, B3001 Leuven, Belgium
Charles Meneveau
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Environmental and Applied Fluid Mechanics, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: johan.meyers@mech.kuleuven.be
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Abstract

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As a generalization of the mass–flux based classical stream tube, the concept of momentum and energy transport tubes is discussed as a flow visualization tool. These transport tubes have the property that no fluxes of momentum or energy exist over their respective tube mantles. As an example application using data from large eddy simulation, such tubes are visualized for the mean-flow structure of turbulent flow in large wind farms, in fully developed wind-turbine-array boundary layers. The three-dimensional organization of energy transport tubes changes considerably when turbine spacings are varied, enabling the visualization of the path taken by the kinetic energy flux that is ultimately available at any given turbine within the array.

JFM classification

Turbulent Flows: Turbulent Flows
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 715 , 25 January 2013 , pp. 335 - 358
Copyright
©2013 Cambridge University Press

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