A number of large wind farms are modelled using large eddy simulations to elucidate the entrainment process. A reference simulation without turbines and three farm simulations with different degrees of imposed atmospheric turbulence are presented. The entrainment process is assessed using proper orthogonal decomposition, which is employed to detect the largest and most energetic coherent turbulent structures. The dominant length scales responsible for the entrainment process are shown to grow further into the wind farm, but to be limited in extent by the streamwise turbine spacing, which could be taken into account when developing farm layouts. The self-organized motion or large coherent structures also yield high correlations between the power productions of consecutive turbines, which can be exploited through dynamic farm control.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Wind energy in complex terrains’.
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