Actuator Line Model in Uniform Inflow

This case is a large-eddy simulation of 2 aligned wind turbines under uniform inflow. The turbines are represented using an actuator line model. The turbine model is the NREL 5MW Reference. The case has uniform inflow boundary condition with an outflow boundary condition on the other end. The sides are specified as zero stress boundary conditions. The wind turbine aerodynamic forces are computed using OpenFAST.

Step by step instructions to run the case

1. Load the appropriate Nalu environment. This requires loading the libraries and Python environment as described in Setting up the environment. For users on Peregrine the function defined in Initial Setup should suffice:

   nalu_env
   

2. Go to the directory where the case is:

   cd nalu-wind/examples/turbine_uniform_inflow/
   

3. Modify the setup.yaml file to include all the necessary simulation parameters.

4. Run the executable and provide the setup.yaml file as input:

   ../nalu_input_fileX -s setup.yaml
   

   For users on Peregrine, now copy the executables to the case directory:

   cp /projects/windsim/nalu-wind-executables/* .
   

5. Generate the mesh:

   ./abl_mesh -i alm_preprocess.yaml
   

6. Run the nalu executable:

   mpirun -np 24 naluX -i alm_simulation.yaml
   

Post-processing

The turbine output is generated at runtime. The plot_alm.py Python script is used to plot turbine output. The script will load the OpenFAST data and plot it as a function of time. To run the script, load the Python environment if needed, and run the Python script:

python plot_alm.py