Simulation and modeling of wind farms in baroclinic atmospheric boundary layers.

This article investigates how baroclinicity—horizontal temperature gradients causing height-dependent geostrophic wind—affects the performance and wake recovery of large wind farms using large eddy simulations (LES). Four baroclinic atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) scenarios (Positive Shear, Negative Shear, Cold Advection, Warm Advection) are compared to a barotropic reference case, revealing that baroclinicity influences wind farm power output through an entrance effect linked to atmospheric turbulence and wind veer, and a downstream effect governed by turbulent entrainment of kinetic energy from above. The study identifies two key mechanisms controlling wake recovery at hub height: wake expansion driven by atmospheric turbulence intensity and an upward displacement of the wake center caused by vertical velocity shear in the ABL. Based on these findings, the authors propose a novel engineering wake model incorporating wake expansion and vertical wake displacement, which accurately predicts large-scale wake recovery under both barotropic and baroclinic conditions.