Large-Eddy Simulation of offshore winds under different synoptic conditions

The studies involving flow in offshore wind conditions increased in recent years. This interest is directly associated with the design conditions for wind turbines and wind farm aiming at optimizing the production of wind energy and the risk analysis during the lifetime a wind farm. In this context, the aim of this study is gaining additional understanding of the structure of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) and its interaction with the synoptic scale forcing. A potential application of this study is to simulate mean and turbulent spatial and temporal structure of the marine boundary layer in order to optimise the structural design of offshore modern wind turbines that may reach height up to 200 m. Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) have been performed and compared with offshore experimental data collected during the LASIE campaign performed in the Ligurian Sea during Summer 2007. Two simulations are performed under different synoptic conditions. Model results have been compared against experimental soundings. Results show that LES outperforms the mesoscale simulation, indicating that the inclusion of large-scale features into the model is necessary to provide a realistic evolution of the meteorological fields at local scale. In this context, LES appears as a promising technique, particularly suitable for offshore wind energy applications