Degree
Master of Engineering Science
Program
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Supervisor
Horia Hangan
2nd Supervisor
Yves Gagnon
Joint Supervisor
Abstract
As an important renewable energy source for electricity generation, wind energy must rely on efficient and accurate wind resource assessment for the siting and the design of wind farms. Traditionally relying on numerical modeling, current wind farms built in Canada, notably, experience an under-performance in terms of power generation. This work studies an alternative approach to wind farm modeling through experimental wind tunnel testing.
The objective of the work is to develop methodologies on how topographic and forest canopy models should be built as scale models of full scale wind farms. The models developed are validated by comparing the data from the wind tunnel experiments with production data at an existing wind farm and with computational models. The Eastern Kings wind farm (PEI, Canada), is used as a test-case for the models.
A Leaf Area Index (LAI) – porosity canopy model was developed based on remote sensed data and the findings are in agreement with previous studies. The LAI – porosity canopy model was tested in the wind tunnel and the results showed an encouraging match with full scale measurements.
Recommended Citation
Parvu, Dan S., "Experimental Modeling of Wind Farm Topography and Canopy" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1852.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1852