A NUMERICAL STUDY FOR AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCES OF NREL OFFSHORE 5-MW WIND TURBINE

Wind energy is recognized as a sustainable source of energy that is both reliable and capable of dramatically reducing pollution to the environment and dependency on non-renewable fuels, leading to research on wind turbines. Nowadays, the demand for electricity increases. Considering that the greater the distance from shore, the greater the wind, more electricity will be generated along the coast. It is necessary and beneficial to study large scale offshore wind turbines. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) 5-MW offshore wind turbine is simulated using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in this article. A realizable k-ε viscous model is used to simulate turbulence flow. The work is validated by comparing the torque with published simulated data, and satisfied consistency is observed. Further simulation and comprehensive analysis demonstrate the flow features and aerodynamic performances of 5-MW offshore wind turbine under various wind and rotor speeds. The velocity profiles, total pressure distribution, pressure coefficient, rotor thrust, torque and aerodynamic properties are obtained in detail.