Century-Old Theory Receives a Physics-Based Update
Momentum theory, developed in the late 19th century, is the fluid dynamics foundation for modelling power, forces, and wake properties of a wind turbine. However, turbines often operate in regimes where classical momentum theory breaks down, requiring empirical corrections. Here, from a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the authors present a physics-based theory derived from first principles which replaces these empirical corrections, creating a new foundation for turbine rotor modelling.
By Kirby Heck, Jaime Liew and Michael Howland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
