Aeroelastic large eddy simulations using vortex methods: unfrozen turbulent and sheared inflow

Vortex particles methods are applied to the aeroelastic simulation of a wind turbine in sheared and turbulent inflow. The possibility to perform large-eddy simulations of turbulence with the effect of the shear vorticity is demonstrated for the first time in vortex methods simulations. Most vortex methods formulation of shear, including segment formulations, assume a frozen shear. It is here shown that these formulations omit two source terms in the vorticity equation. The current paper also present unfrozen simulation of shear. The infinite support of the shear vorticity is accounted for using a novel approach relying on a Neumann to Dirichlet map. The interaction of the sheared vorticity with the wind turbine is shown to have an important impact on the wake shape. The obtained wake shape are closer to the one obtained using traditional computational fluid dynamics: Results with unfrozen shear do not have the severe upward motion of the wake observed in vortex methods simulation with frozen shear. The interaction of the shear and turbulence vorticity is shown to reduce the turbulence decay otherwise observed. The vortex code implemented is coupled to an aeroelastic code and examples of aeroelastic simulations under sheared and turbulent inflow are presented.