Wake-steering control represents a promising approach to enhance wind farm efficiency by deliberately angling upstream turbines to deflect their wakes away from downstream machines. This experimental study systematically investigated how various wake-steering strategies perform on a 3×3 grid configuration using controlled wind-tunnel testing.
The research applied multiple yaw angle configurations to the model farm and measured the resulting power output changes. Maximum measured power gains reached approximately 5.3% when wake-steering was optimally applied, achieved by accepting reduced performance from upstream turbines in exchange for improved wind resource availability downstream.
Key findings revealed important asymmetries in farm behavior. The central column of turbines responded less favorably to yaw adjustments compared to lateral columns, likely due to different wake interaction patterns across the farm layout. Despite this spatial variation, the study determined that independently optimizing yaw angles for each column failed to improve overall performance beyond uniform column strategies, suggesting that coordinated, identical control across columns represents the optimal control philosophy.
Wind speed conditions significantly influenced control effectiveness. At higher free-stream velocities, baseline farm power production increased, but the relative improvement potential from wake-steering control decreased. This relationship indicates that wake-steering benefits are most pronounced under lower to moderate wind speed conditions, whereas high-wind operations show diminishing returns from active yaw control.
These wind-tunnel results provide valuable validation for wake-steering implementation in commercial wind farms. The findings suggest that farm-level optimization requires careful consideration of spatial wake dynamics and atmospheric conditions rather than aggressive independent turbine control. The 5.3% potential gain—if sustained in field deployments—could translate to significant annual energy yield improvements, supporting the economic case for wake-steering systems. Future work should examine scaling effects and validate these laboratory results in full-scale field installations.
