CFD Prediction of Tip Vortex Aging in the Wake of a Multi-MW Wind Turbine

In the present study, prediction from high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of the tip vortex aging in the near-wake of a multi-MW wind turbine is evaluated and compared to in-situ measurements as well as results of a semi-empirical model. Optimized tip vortex refinement is also introduced to investigate the influence of the grid topology on the vortex evolution. The grid refinement affects only the vortex core size and a reduction of the core radius by a factor of 3.4 was achieved with the chosen parameters. On the refined setup, vortex core sizes and strength are comparable with in-situ Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) based measurements at 0.5 rotor radius downstream of the wind turbine. A comparison of the aging function with a semi-empirical vortex helix model shows a good agreement with the refined CFD results, but the core size predicted by the model is smaller than in simulations and experiments.