Wind turbines are by far the largest turbomachines of the world, with blade lengths that are now much longer than 100 meters and with a weight of several tons. The level of complexity of these blades in terms of aerodynamics and structural loads is enormous. Moreover, the functioning of a wind turbine involves many different physical scales, ranging from those of atmospheric flows (lengthscale in the order of meters) to very small ones on the blades surface (lengthscale in the order of millimeters). As readily arguable, reproducing reliably full similitude conditions in wind tunnels is intrinsically unfeasible. In this scenario, simulations are pivotal to ensure the further development of wind turbines. If engineering models like those based on the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) theory are well assessed and still largely used in the industry, the next generation of larger rotors will require the use of more refined theories, ranging from medium-fidelity models, like the Lifting Line theory (LLT), to the massive use of high-fidelity CFD. The present Special Issue of Energies aims to gather improvements and recent advances in existing simulations methods for wind turbines. Topics of interest for the Special Issue include (but are not limited to) numerical models for: aerodynamics: BEM, LLT, CFD techniques, hybrid simulation techniques; structural loads; aeroelasticity; multi-physics; noise; control; inflow modeling.
Keywords: wind turbine; simulation; CFD; lifting line; BEM; numerical simulation.