Development and validation of a new two-dimensional wake model for wind turbine wakes

A new two-dimensional (2D) wake model is developed and validated in this article to predict the velocity and turbulence distribution in the wake of a wind turbine. Based on the classical Jensen wake model, this model is further employing a cosine shape function to redistribute the spread of the wake deficit in the crosswind direction. Moreover, a variable wake decay rate is proposed to take into account both the ambient turbulence and the rotor generated turbulence, different from a constant wake decay rate used in the Jensen model. The obtained results are compared to field measurements, wind tunnel experiments, and results of an advanced k−ω turbulence model as well as large eddy simulations. From the comparisons, it is found that the proposed new wake model gives a good prediction in terms of both shape and velocity amplitude of the wake deficit, especially in the far wake which is the region of interest for wind farm development projects.