Study and evaluation of operating

parameters of project wind Villonaco of

province Loja-Ecuador

Hans G. Ollague Armijos, Eng U.P.S.
Hugo E. Crespo Azanza, Eng U.P.S.
Universidad Politcnica Salesiana
The Universidad Politcnica Salesiana is an Ecuadorian university belonging to the Salesian
Congregation. The U.P.S. was founded in 1994 in the city of Cuenca and has headquarters in
Quito and Guayaquil. It is characterized by technical and Christian education provided to its
students.
Insitutional Image. Universidad Politecnica Salesiana sede Cuenca-Ecuador.
Universidad Politcnica Salesiana
MISION:
The Universidad Politcnica Salesiana is an institution of higher humanistic education and
polytechnic, of Christian inspiration with Catholic character, e Salesian nature; directed
preferential manner to youth of popular sectors; seeks to form "honest citizens and good
Christians" with academic ability and investigative that contribute to local and national
development.

VISION:
Being an institution of higher education of reference in the search for truth and the
development of the cultural, of investigation scientific and technological; recognized socially
for its academic quality, university social responsibility, and for their capacity to incidence in the
intercultural.
Universidad Politcnica Salesiana
The UPS has acquired the ANSYS software does aproximately 1 year. This major software has
enabled teachers and students to develop and solve problems in fluid dynamics, heat transfer,
inter alia.
Goals:
General:

Characterize, simulate and analyze wind flow in the wind farm Villonaco
to determine operating conditions.

Specifics:

Analyze the wind potential of the wind and the orography of the area of
emplacement of the wind farm Villonaco.

Characterize and simulate the wind flow in the Wind Farm Villonaco,
through specialized software in fluid dynamics.

Perform validation and the analysis of the results obtained of the
simulation with experimental data and of operation of the Project eolic.
Problem Description
Ecuador has with wind power projects in some parts of the
country, the current project and of higher power generation is
Villonaco wind farm located in Loja province south of the country,
this being the highest of its kind not only in Ecuador but also
globally and also is located in complex terrain, which justifies the
need for a characterization study of wind flow, with the help of a
software that manages the dynamics of fluids.
Methodology of simulation
Creation of the geometry and domain of the knoll with Inventor (parallelepiped).
Importing geometry with ANSYS-FLUENT.
Creation of geometry planar and meshing of knoll with component "Mesh ".
Independent analysis of meshing in the surface and the profile of the knoll.
Ingress of the boundary conditions and emplacement data.
Numerical Simulation of the knoll.
Analysis of wind potential.
Process
Collect characteristic data of emplacement.

Manipulate the parameters of the area and its respective data, for
introduce them in the simulation model in the software of engineering and
thereby obtain results of wind speed and turbulence values .

Perform the simulation and modeling of wind flow with the software
ANSYS-FLUENT, appropriate for problem solving of fluid and of heat
transfer.

Effect the validation of process used, in accordance a own
measurements and scientific studies that have been conducted in other
projects of different authors.

Compare the simulation results with the results and operating data
Villonaco wind farm.
Creation of the geometry and domain.

Creation of geometry planar and meshing.
Ingress of the boundary conditions and
emplacement data.
Numerical Simulation of the knoll.
Obtain of results
Analysis of wind potential.
Analysis of wind potential.
Energa cintica turbulenta en la cima de la loma X/D = 0. Perfil de velocidades en la cima de la loma X/D = 0.
Validation
One time elaborated computational numerical simulation
of the problem presented, it is necessary to perform a
validation of method developed, to be certain that what
was reported by the specialized software was really a
rough prediction of the actual behavior of the wind farm
operation method. The validation is performed making a
new simulation, this time with a standard knoll which
possessing scientific studies with different procedures to
the exposed out in this project.


Validation


The standard knoll for the present study is the
Askervein hill located in Scotland.
Validation
Validation
Validation A-A
Validation AA-AA
Comparison
Once generated the mesh, set the boundary conditions,
performed numerical simulation and obtained the
resulting values in the process, we proceed to compare
the results of wind speed and power with the operating
data registered in the Wind Farm Villonaco , for know
the goodness of ANSYS software in the development of
the wind problem.
Speed Comparison
Because the speed measurement records for Villonaco
wind farm were elaborated with regularly to heights of
30 and 40 meters, analysis and comparison is done with
these data. Thus the speeds obtained are:
Height Speed
489 m (30 m) 9,8 m/s
499 m (40 m) 9,7 m/s
Speed Comparison
Of the Records of speeds wind of farm wind , is obtained
the following speeds:
Meses 30 m 40 m
Enero 7,3 m/s 7 m/s
Febrero 8,9 m/s 8,8 m/s
Marzo 11,4 m/s 11 m/s
Abril 9,1 m/s 8,7 m/s
Mayo 13,1 m/s 12,6 m/s
Junio 18,6 m/s 17,7 m/s
Julio 15,1 m/s 14,5 m/s
Agosto 20,5 m/s 20,1 m/s
Septiembre 14,6 m/s 14,4 m/s
Octubre 7,8 m/s 7,9 m/s
Noviembre 6,8 m/s 7,1 m/s
Diciembre 6,6 m/s 6,6 m/s
Velocidad Promedio anual 11,65 m/s 11,37 m/s
Comparison of turbulence
Obtaining turbulence intensities to 30 and 40 meters
high, are:
Alturas
Intensidad
Turbulencia
489 m (30 m) 18 %
499 m (40 m) 14 %
Comparison of turbulence
Based on average of velocity values measured monthly over
the course of a year, will be developed the following
expression:




The standard deviation obtained at 30 and 40 meters using a
statistical treatment of ENERSUR EP is 0.88 m / s. Therefore,
the turbulence intensity obtained in 30 m to 11.65 m/s, is:




Similarly, is performed the same procedure of calculating for
the height of 40 m, whose value of speed is 11.37 m / s.
=

=
0,88 /
11,65 /
= 0,0755 = 7,55%
=
0,88 /
11,37 /
= 0,0774 = 7,74%
=

=
/
/

Power comparison
With the value of resultant velocity, we proceed to perform the
construction of the power curve for get the power supplied by the
wind turbine. The construction of the curve need some
parameters to solve the following expression:



Where:






The above parameters are own of the site for the wind farm
Villonaco and of simulation. The Using them to solve the formula
of power, generate a set of points that when put together
establish the called power curve for different speed ranges.
Wind density at the emplacement: 0,923 kg/m
Swept rea of rotor: 3848,45 m
Wind speeds: 0, 1, 2, 330 m/s
Power coefficient: 0,52
=
1
2

3

Power comparison
9.7, 842.9001339
9.8, 869.2388871
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
0 5 10 15 20 25
P
o
t
e
n
c
i
a

(
k
W
)

Velocidad (m/s)
11.37, 1357.507739
11.65, 1460.288604
-200
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
0 5 10 15 20 25
P
o
t
e
n
c
i
a

(
k
W
)

Velocidad (m/s)
Of register
30 metros 40 metros
Average Speed
(m/s)
11,65 11,37
Power
(kW)
1460288,60 1356314,15
Of Simulation
30 metros 40 metros
Average Speed
(m/s)
9,8 9,7
Power
(kW)
869,238 842,900
Comparison
Description Simulation Data Measured data Difference
Height (m) 30
Annual Avg speed (m/s) 9,8 11,65 1,85
Annual Power (kW) 869,238 1460,288 591,049
Record (Hrs) 4206,73
Annual energy (kWh) 3,66E+09 6,14E+09 2,49E+09
Turbulence Intensity (%) 18 7,55 6,45
Description Simulation Data Measured data Difference
Height (m) 40
Annual Avg speed (m/s) 9,7 11,37 1,67
Annual Power (kW) 842,900 1357,507 514,607
Record (Hrs) 4206,73
Annual energy (kWh) 3,55E+09 5,71E+09 2,16E+09
Turbulence Intensity (%) 14 7,74 10,26
Conclusions:
Ecuador has many important renewable energy resources for
benefit the local economy and the environment, particularly the
wind is the resource that has been come using for power
generation, same which has had tremendous growth in Ecuador
and worldwide , being a very good alternative to reduce the use
of fossil resources.

The wind farm Villonaco due which to is situated at a big height
above sea level and has a complex terrain, obtained a large
influence of the wind, therefore it is ideal for applying the model
of turbulence k-epsilon, the which assumes that the flow is fully
turbulent, and despises the viscosity effects.

Conclusions:
For the simulation, the size finest of mesh refinement in the
profile of the knoll is very important because it is where the
boundary layer is located and therefore the most significant
changes in wind speed occur. Of such a way, which according to
the quality of refinement that is applied in the meshing, can affect
notably in the accuracy of the problem and results.

The software validation was performed using as a reference the
knoll Askervein located in Scotland, by entering the boundary
conditions of the place, and obtaining results comparative very
acceptable, namely the velocity values of the simulation are
approaching to those recorded in the different points of the knoll.



Conclusions:
By locating the simulation results performed in the ANSYS
FLUENT software in the velocity profile is obtained as the result
that the speeds are very similar to those values recorded at the
emplacement .

The turbulence intensity recorded at the emplacement compared
to the turbulence intensity resulting from the simulation are not
similar because the standard deviation depends on the values of
record of speed, of which are variables in the course of
measurements taken year to year.


Conclusions:
The potencies obtained from 0.8 MW and 1.3 MW, starting from
the resulting speed of the simulation is an acceptable value
because the guaranteed power of 1.5 MW in the Villonaco
windfarm is assumes in ideal conditions namely, that always have
velocity values between 12 and 25 m/s, and is something that
really can not be achieved, because the wind speed is variable
during a given time, provoking the oscillation of its values.

The results obtained by the simulation with the model used, are
very close to the values which resulting from the data of records.
Based on these good results are achieved affirm that the
behavior of the wind flow in the Villonaco wind farm is described
in a very rough way by the different values, graphs, contour, etc.,
whom were were extracted of post-processing of simulation.



Recommendations:
Projects resulting from this study, require sufficient knowledge
about the turbulence models, basic management and medium
of ANSYS FLUENT and the boundary conditions of the study
area.

At the time of perform the meshing of the knoll, should be take
into account which; if the meshing is very coarse, the values
which is obtain, they'll be away from the actual data, and if it is
too fine, the convergence were not will perform by excessive
set of tetrahedra, causing a convergence error. Therefore, the
meshing must adequately capture the characteristics of the
knoll. For this, you must perform the tests necessary to have a
criterion correct of meshing and the subsequent obtaining of the
results.

Recommendations:
Projects resulting from this study, require sufficient knowledge
about the turbulence models, basic management and medium
of ANSYS FLUENT and the boundary conditions of the study
area.

For future projects is recommended to analyze the possibility of
perform the same study of operation, with a threedimensional
simulation, to interpret and compare the results presents in two
dimensions with the that can be obtained in three dimensions.


Recommendations:
Once it has been possible to determine the behavior of the wind
flow through simulation and obtaining the velocity profile; is
considered necessary to study in depth the impact it could have
on other locations inside and outside the country, the velocities
and turbulence that occur in emplacement where be want to
implement wind projects.