Numerical simulations of wind−wave interactions for applications in offshore wind energy

As a renewable energy resource, offshore wind exhibits several advantages than inland wind, such as faster wind speeds, larger available spaces for building wind farms, and relatively less impact caused by the visual and acoustic pollutions of wind turbines. However, offshore wind also possesses some complex flow physics due to its dynamic interactions with the sea-surface waves, making it a challenging task to accurately predict the fluid dynamics and wind power production for designing offshore wind farms. In recent years, considerable efforts have been made for developing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools that can capture the complex flow physics in offshore wind farms. This talk will focus on one specific CFD model, in which the large-eddy simulation of wind turbulence is dynamically coupled with the high-order spectral modeling of sea-surface waves and the accurate disk model of wind turbines to simulate the wind–wave–turbine interactions in offshore wind farms. The simulations results provide some useful insights on how the sea-surface waves (e.g., broadband wind-waves and long-crested swell waves) affect offshore wind energy harvesting through wind–wave interactions.