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Time-varying wind-turbine wakes at high Reynolds numbers

Nathaniel J. Wei*

Adina Y. Fleisher

John W. Kurelek

Marcus N. Hultmark

  • Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6

  • *Contact author: njwei@engineering.upenn.edu
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 070501 – Published 28 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/18jm-6bzj

Abstract

Wind turbines operating in the atmospheric boundary layer are constantly exposed to time-varying flow conditions. These disturbances often occur on similar timescales to wind-turbine controllers, which may interfere with wind-farm control strategies that operate under steady-flow assumptions. This study aims to investigate the significance of such time variations on wind-turbine wake dynamics, focusing on slow timescales representative of quasisteady processes in large wind farms. Experiments are conducted at high Reynolds numbers (ReD=4×106) in a pressurized-air wind tunnel, with a wind turbine forced in periodic rotation-rate oscillations by means of a time-varying generator torque at low Strouhal numbers (St=0.04). Flow measurements in the wake of the turbine demonstrate that disturbances propagate through the wake as traveling waves, which are advected nonlinearly at the velocity of the wake rather than that of the free stream. The wake behavior can be described in a quasisteady manner, but only after wake advection is accounted for by a Lagrangian transformation. Even in the quasisteady regime, the spatiotemporal evolution of the wake can be controlled by independently varying the turbine thrust and tip-speed ratio. The results suggest that wake advection is important to consider for wind-farm modeling and control, and that time-varying control may allow wind-turbine wake interactions to be tuned even in nominally quasisteady conditions for optimal wind-farm performance.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 070501– Published 28 July, 2026
  • Received 20 March 2026
  • Accepted 15 June 2026
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