Dynamic spatial effects of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence on wind turbine power

This study examines how coherent turbulent structures in the atmospheric boundary layer influence the dynamic power output of a horizontal-axis wind turbine. The spanwise velocity distribution upstream of the rotor and the concurrent power output were simultaneously measured in a wind tunnel using an array of five hot-wire probes coupled and a high-frequency data acquisition system. Results reveal a 1.37 s lag in power response relative to velocity fluctuations, attributed to rotor inertia and electromagnetic damping. The correlation between single-point velocity and instantaneous power is below 0.35, highlighting the critical role of turbulence spatial non-uniformity. Reconstructing the flow field using Taylor's frozen turbulence hypothesis shows that the spatial distribution of large-scale turbulent structures across the rotor plane, combined with the turbine's dynamic response, governs the instantaneous power and its fluctuations. A multi-point convolution model based on real-time spatial mapping was developed to account for inflow dynamics and spatial variability. Validation shows the five-probe model achieves a relative error of 0.32% and R2 = 0.803, significantly outperforming the conventional (11.89% error) and single-point models (0.7% error, R2 = 0.785). This work provides a physical basis for predicting instantaneous wind power fluctuations and understanding turbine dynamic response under turbulent inflow.