Wind turbine models

FLORIS generally represents wind turbines as actuator disks specified by a power curve and a thrust coefficient curve (both specified as a function of wind speed). We can easily investigate the power and thrust coefficients of a turbine by running a single-turbine FlorisModel using a range of wind speeds.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from floris import FlorisModel, TimeSeries

n_wind_speeds = 100
wind_speeds = np.linspace(0.1, 30, n_wind_speeds)

fmodel = FlorisModel("defaults") # Defaults to NREL 5MW turbine
fmodel.set(
    wind_data=TimeSeries(
        wind_directions=np.zeros(n_wind_speeds),
        wind_speeds=wind_speeds,
        turbulence_intensities=0.06
    ),
    layout_x=[0],
    layout_y=[0],
    wind_shear=0.0
)

fmodel.run()

powers = fmodel.get_turbine_powers()
thrust_coefficients = fmodel.get_turbine_thrust_coefficients()

fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 1, sharex=True)
ax[0].plot(wind_speeds, powers)
ax[0].grid()
ax[0].set_ylabel("Power [kW]")
ax[1].plot(wind_speeds, thrust_coefficients)
ax[1].grid()
ax[1].set_ylabel("Thrust coefficient [-]")
ax[1].set_xlabel("Wind speed [m/s]")
ax[1].set_xlim([0, 30])

(0.0, 30.0)

Prepackaged turbine models

FLORIS ships with three reference wind turbine models: the NREL 5MW turbine Jonkman et al. [1], the IEA 10 MW turbine Kainz et al. [2], and the IEA 15 MW turbine Gaertner et al. [3]. The turbine models used for FLORIS simulations can be changed by specifying the turbine_type keyword argument to FlorisModel.set(). See Turbine Library for more details.

fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 1, sharex=True)

turbine_models = ["nrel_5MW", "iea_10MW", "iea_15MW"]

for turbine_model in turbine_models:
    fmodel.set(turbine_type=[turbine_model], reference_wind_height=-1)

    fmodel.run()

    powers = fmodel.get_turbine_powers()
    thrust_coefficients = fmodel.get_turbine_thrust_coefficients()

    ax[0].plot(wind_speeds, powers, label=turbine_model)
    ax[1].plot(wind_speeds, thrust_coefficients)


ax[0].grid()
ax[0].set_ylabel("Power [kW]")
ax[0].legend()
ax[1].grid()
ax[1].set_ylabel("Thrust coefficient [-]")
ax[1].set_xlabel("Wind speed [m/s]")
ax[1].set_xlim([0, 30])

(0.0, 30.0)

User-defined wind turbine models

Users may also provide their own wind turbine models, provided that they contain the appropriate information. To include your own wind turbine model in your main FLORIS input YAML, use the !include specifier, e.g.

  turbine_type:
  - !include path/to/your/turbine.yaml

You can also set the turbine_type to your own turbine using the path, e.g.

fmodel.set(turbine_type=["path/to/your/turbine.yaml"])

The following pages describe in closer detail how wind turbines are implemented in FLORIS and provide information on advanced wind turbine operation and modeling.

Note

The TurbineInterface and TurbineLibrary classes are now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Users should simply use an instantiated FlorisModel to investigate wind turbine models.