Abstract We investigate the turbulent dynamics of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-sediment system around a wind turbine. To this end, a coupled two-dimensional idealized numerical model of the ocean and sediment layers,… Click to show full abstract
Abstract We investigate the turbulent dynamics of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-sediment system around a wind turbine. To this end, a coupled two-dimensional idealized numerical model of the ocean and sediment layers, forced by an idealized offshore wind turbine wake is used. The turbine wake impacts the ocean surface and for strong wind and water layer thickness higher than 20 m, large scale eddies of the size comparable to the wake thickness are generated, leading to a turbulent dynamics in the ocean. The turbulence in the ocean is controlled by the shallow wake parameter S. The turbulent ocean dynamics is numerically integrated using time dependent simulations at fine horizontal resolution (1 m). From these simulations, eddy coefficients parametrizating the turbulent fluxes are proposed to be used in larger-scale (RANS) models. The ocean dynamics and the parameter values depend mainly on S. The ocean dynamics is laminar (S > 7.10−2), has a localized (7.10−2
               
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