Thermal Analysis of Wind Turbine Nacelle Operating in Algerian Saharan Climate

Wind turbines installed in Saharan climate operate often under severe weather conditions. Particularly, the electric/electronic equipments located within the nacelle may be subjected to extremely high temperature. To maintain acceptable temperature levels inside the nacelle and control efficiently the thermal effect, cooling systems should be used properly. This paper presents a numerical method to investigate the nacelle thermal behaviour of wind turbines operating under extremely hot weather conditions. The air flow in and around nacelle is described through the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The energy equation has been used to account for heat transfer effects. A Control-Volume Finite Element Method has been used to solve the resulting governing equations. The simulations have been performed through a typical commercial wind turbine. Results including temperature fields in and around the nacelle have been obtained and showed quite reasonable behaviour. Mainly, the impact of an appropriate cooling system that can be designed and applied in nacelle thermal control is presented and discussed.