SP-Wind code by the TFSO research group at KULeuven

The ‘SP-Wind’ code of the TFSO research group at KULeuven simulates the movement of air and how it interacts with its environment under various conditions.

Prof. Johan Meyers (KULeuven): “At the TSFO group, we specialise in the simulation, optimisation and control of turbulent flows. In practical terms, approximately eighty per cent of our research is applied to wind energy. Our primary focus is studying the complex interaction between large wind farms and the atmosphere. However, turbulent flows are extremely difficult to model. Thanks to supercomputing, we can construct reasonably accurate models of these flows.”

Prof. Meyers started the development of the SP-wind code during his time as a postdoc researcher: “I was fed up with dirty codes and wanted to write my own code. I chose a specific type of algorithm: pseudo-spectral discretisation. This type of discretisation is extremely useful for turbulent flows as long as you have simple geometries. The code fits wind farms in an atmospheric boundary layer very well.”

According to prof. Meyers, the SP-wind code is one of the most performant codes in wind farm simulations: “The code gives a very accurate discretisation, but I think the real benefit is that it gives a very efficient solution of the Poisson equation. The code is limited in its versatility, but it is a very strong code for this specific application.”  

More information on the SP-Wind Code: www.mech.kuleuven.be/en/tme/research/tfso/wind-energy