Abstract
Wind farms with staggered aligned wind turbines have been considered for decades to minimize the effect of turbine wake on the aerodynamic performance of its subsequent turbines. Given the numerous advantages of the Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), it is significant to study the feasibility of implementing them in large-scale wind farms. Therefore, the present work numerically investigates the mutual interaction between H-rotor Darrieus turbines in staggered wind farms and standalone clusters. Different layouts and configurations were thoroughly investigated by solving the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations under different geometric and operating conditions. The objective of the present work is to maximize the power output of the VAWTs' wind farms while reducing the required land area. This objective was achieved by defining the spacing between turbines that reduces the wake losses and minimizes the mutual interaction between the VAWTs in staggered wind farms. At this spacing, the power coefficient of the individual turbines is closer to that of an isolated turbine. Moreover, the spacing that optimizes the power density of standalone clusters was estimated. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.