Ma, LunNishino, Takafumi2018-10-252018-10-252018-06-19Lun Ma and Takafumi Nishino. Preliminary estimate of the impact of support structures on the aerodynamic performance of very large wind farms. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 1037, Winds, Wakes and Turbulence, 2018, Article number 0720361742-6588https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1037/7/072036http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/13571An extended theoretical model, which is based on a two-scale coupled momentum conservation argument, is proposed to estimate aerodynamic effects of support structures on the performance of ideal very large wind farms. A key implication of this extended model is that the parameter (As /A) bold dot ${C}_{D}^{* }$ where A and As are the rotor swept area and support-structure frontal projected area, respectively, and ${C}_{D}^{* }$ is an effective support-structure drag coefficient, plays an important role in the design of very large wind farms. In particular, the optimal farm density tends to decrease as the normalised support-structure drag increases. To validate this extended model, Wall-Modelled Large-Eddy Simulations (WMLES) of a periodic array of actuator discs with and without support structures are conducted; results agree qualitatively with the model.enAttribution 3.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Article