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Severe winds produced by thunderstorm downbursts pose a serious risk to the structural integrity of wind turbines. However, guidelines for wind turbine design (such as the International Electrotechnical Commission Standard, IEC 61400-1) do not describe the key physical characteristics of such events realistically. In this study, a large-eddy simulation model is employed to generate several idealized downburst events during contrasting atmospheric stability conditions that range from convective through neutral to stable. Wind and turbulence fields generated from this dataset are then used as inflow for a 5-MW land-based wind turbine model; associated turbine loads are estimated and compared for the different inflow conditions. We first discuss time-varying characteristics of the turbine-scale flow fields during the downbursts; next, we investigate the relationship between the velocity time series and turbine loads as well as the influence and effectiveness of turbine control systems (for blade pitch and nacelle yaw). Finally, a statistical analysis is conducted to assess the distinct influences of the contrasting stability regimes on extreme and fatigue loads on the wind turbine. 

Downburst events initialized at various hours during the evening transition (ET) period are simulated to determine the effects of ambient stability on the outflow of downburst winds. The simulations are performed using a pseudo-spectral large eddy simulation model at high resolution to capture both the large-scale flow and turbulence characteristics of downburst winds. First, a simulation of the ET is performed to generate realistic initial and boundary conditions for the subsequent downburst simulations. At each hour in the ET, an ensemble of downburst simulations is initialized separately from the ET simulation in which an elevated cooling source within the model domain generates negatively buoyant air to mimic downburst formation.

The simulations show that while the stability regime changes, the ensemble mean of the peak wind speed remains fairly constant (between 35 and 38 m s⁻¹) and occurs at the lowest model level for each simulation. However, there is a slight increase in intensity and decrease in the spread of the maximum outflow winds as stability increases as well as an increase in the duration over which these strongest winds persist. This appears to be due to the enhanced maintenance of the ring vortex that results from the low-level temperature inversion, increased ambient shear, and a lack of turbulence within the stable cases. Coherent turbulent kinetic energy and wavelet spectral analysis generally show increased energy in the convective cases and that energy increases across all scales as the downburst passes.