Open Access

The current study describes analyses of the WINSENT wind energy test sitelocated in complex terrain in Southern Germany by highly resolved numerical simulations.The resolved atmospheric turbulence is simulated with Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations bythe flow solver FLOWer without consideration of the research wind turbines.The mean inflow and wind direction of the analysed time period is provided by precursorsimulations of project partners. The simulation model chain consists of three codes with differenttime scales and resolutions. The model chain provides a data transfer from mesoscale WRFsimulations to OpenFOAM. As a next step OpenFOAM provides inflow data in the valleyof the terrain site for the present FLOWer simulations, the code with the highest resolutionin space and time. The mean velocity field provided by OpenFOAM is superimposed withfluctuations that are based on measurements to obtain the small turbulent scales within theFLOWer simulations, which the previous tools of the model chain can not resolve.Comparisons with the two already installed met masts clarify that the current FLOWersimulations provide an adequate agreement with measured data. The results are verified withthe application of a second simulation, in which a homogeneous velocity profile is superimposedwith turbulence. Thus, comparisons with measured data showed that the benefit of using theinflow data of this model chain is especially evident near the ground.