On the Accuracy of uRANS and LES-Based CFD Modeling Approaches for Rotor and Wake Aerodynamics of the (New) MEXICO Wind Turbine Rotor Phase-III

This work presents a comparison study of the CFD modeling with two different turbulence approaches viz. unsteady RANS and LES, on full-scale model (New) MEXICO rotor wind turbine. The main emphasis paper is wake aerodynamics. Simulations are carried out for three speeds considered in experiment (10, 15, 24 ms−1). results uRANS LES compared against experimental measurements pressure distributions, axial, radial, azimuth traverse velocity components. near characteristics vorticity also analyzed. distribution show that can predict onset flow separation more accurately than when turbine operates stall condition. compute structures significantly better condition blade. For design condition, mean absolute error axial radial components along less 10% both approaches, whereas tangential component 2% from approach. reveal recovers faster approach, requiring further research far region using approaches.