Find listed extensions and bug fixes in WindSim. The direction of the future
development is influenced by the feedback from the users. Please inform us about what you would like to see
in the next WindSim version. Planed extensions and bug fixes will partly be given by;
Known bugs and shortcomings.
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Convert terrain data... |
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A graphical user interface has been developed for the .map conversion with interactive
setting of the converted area. The old command driven version is available under Advanced conversion.
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Convert climatology data... |
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A graphical user interface has been developed for the .tab conversion.
The old command driven version is available under Advanced conversion.
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Create power curve (.pws) |
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A graphical user interface has been developed for creating power curve files (.pws).
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Export vertical profiles... |
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A new faster vertical profile export has been placed under Tools
This export tool allows vertical profiles extraction at turbine and climatology positions for any wind sector.
The export vertical profiles which in previous version was placed in the module Energy is still there.
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New dynamic memory allocation in PHOENICS |
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In PHOENICS 2008 the dynamic memory allocation has been improved. An initial array size is given
in the file CHAM.INI, if the array needs to be increased then this is done by copying the array to a file,
increasing the memory and then copy the file content back into memory.
In previous versions it was all handled in memory, consequently the copying could surpass the available memory.
The former way of improving this situation was to tune the initial array size to its maximum to avoid the copying.
Now this is handled by file swapping and the initial array size has been reduced and user intervention
will no longer be required.
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New report template |
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New report template including all set properties, execution time and convergence status.
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Boundary condition at top |
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In previous versions of WindSim the boundary conditions at the top has been a fixed pressure condition.
An alternative boundary condition with a no-friction wall is now available.
In particular for flat areas with small pressure perturbation the fixed pressure condition could lead to outflow
through the top border. The flat plate case have been tested with both boundary conditions see;
Technical issues.
The two boundary conditions have also been tested at the site Hundhammer see;
Demo reports.
The fixed pressure condition is still used as default condition, as in conjunction with the coupled solver
oscillations could be initiated if the top boundary is too close to the ground.
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Convergence wizard |
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In cases where convergence is difficult to achieve, then the convergence wizard should be activated.
The default convergence promoting procedure in WindSim based on so-called false time step relaxation
is replaced by an automatic linear-under-relaxation set by the convergence wizard. The procedure will
most probably give somewhat slower convergence; for the convergence wizard makes conservative rather
than optimal choices.
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Coriolis |
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Optional activation of the Coriolis force.
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Boundary condition profiles |
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Optional activation of numerically solved boundary profiles.
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Temperature |
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Optional inclusion of the temperature equation is availabel for testing.
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Export vertical profiles... |
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A new faster vertical profile export has been placed under Tools
This export tool allows vertical profiles extraction at turbine and climatology positions for any wind sector.
The export vertical profiles which in previous version was placed in the module Energy is still there.
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AEP based on multiple climatologies |
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The wind resource map in the module Wind Resources has been based on multiple climatologies by radial interpolation.
The same procedure is now applied for the AEP.
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Failed updates of the directional shifts at climatology points |
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Whenever multiple layouts are used, and the layouts do not contain the same climatologies,
then the calculation of the directional shifts at the climatology points might fail.
This error has been fixed.
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Installation folder |
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The default installation folder has been changed from C:\VECTOR\WindSimn.n.n to
C:\Program Files\WindSim\WindSimn.n.n, where n.n.n is the version number.
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Project folder - moving projects |
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The default location for a project file, project_name.ws, has been changed from
C:\VECTOR\WindSim Data\User\User_name\Customer_name\Project_name\project_name.ws to
C:\My Documents\WindSim projects\Project_name\project_name.ws
Furthermore the projects ..\Project_name have been made folder independent, which allows the user to
move projects to arbitrary locations and re-start WindSim.
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64-bit version |
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WindSim is available for the operating system Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
In order to run the 64-bit version, a 64-bit Windows driver for the WindSim hardware key is required.
Download and install;
Sentinel SuperPro 64-bit Windows Drivers for AMD64 and EM64T machines.
The following files: earexe_64, satexe_64 and config_64 found in the folder
C:\Program Files\WindSim\WindSim4.7.0\Bin\Phoenics must be copied to earexe, satexe and config.
The existing files with these names could be renamed to earexe_32, satexe_32 and config_32
as they correspond to the default 32-bit version.
Be aware that the files earexe_64, satexe_64 and config_64 must always exist in the folder
C:\Program Files\WindSim\WindSim4.7.0\Bin\Phoenics. If they do not exist a reinstallation will
be performed when WindSim is restarted. For this reason it is important to notice that these files must be copied and not renamed.
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Regional setting independency |
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The operating system allows you to set the used language for a PC under "Control Panel" and "Regional and Language Options".
The chosen language is associated with a separator used for real numbers, a separator that would be a comma or a dot,
depending on the used language. The input in WindSim uses the separator defined by the used language.
As an unwanted consequence, moving a project from one PC to another with a different language and then possibly also with a
different number separator could change the WindSim input. Changes in the WindSim input would change the status of the module
selector, which would turn red. For this reason the comparison of the WindSim input has been made independent of the
regional setting.
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Convert terrain data... - smoothing of sub-areas |
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In the Convert terrain data... tool smoothing of sub-areas is possible.
The tool modifies the .gws file, in contrast to the smoothing in the module Terrain
which does not modify the .gws file, but the input to the module Wind Fields.
Since the smoothing in the Convert terrain data... tool modifies the .gws file,
it could be used repeatedly for smoothing with different smoothing limits.
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Convert climatology data... - WindFarm .wfr conversion |
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The Convert climatology data... tool has been extended with conversion of the
WindFarm .wfr frequency distribution format.
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Export objects (.ows)... |
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Export objects (.ows)... is a new tool for exporting objects to a .ows file.
If global coordinates are used for the objects this file could be a convenient way to move objects from
one model to another.
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Change language - Chinese |
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A Chinese version is available.
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Convert terrain model... - Smoothing |
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The Convert terrain model... has been extended with area specific smoothing.
While the smoothing in the module Terrain acts on the whole extracted area, the
smoothing in the tool Convert terrain model... will act on a user specified
area. In addition the tool Convert terrain model... makes the smoothing on the
file grid.gws, whereas in the module Terrain the grid.gws was not modified,
only the prepared input for the flow simulations. Therefore the tool
Convert terrain model... can be used repeatedly on various sub-areas with
various smoothing limits.
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Convert climatology data... - WAsP .tab conversion |
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The third line in the .tab header contains three values: number of sector,
frequency multiplication factor and sector correction. If the frequency multiplication factor
is different from 1, or the sector correction is different from 0, then a warning will be given,
as this information will not be included in the converted dataset.
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Export HTML report... |
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The Description and Report pages are exported as a web report. All 3D content,
available in the ordinary Report pages, is omitted. This is done for two reasons;
to assure compatibility with common web browsers; and to reduce the report size for
easy Internet distribution.
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Limits... |
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Maximum number of sectors in a climatology has been increased from 24 to 36.
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Limits... |
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Maximum number of wind turbines in a project has been increased from 100 to 200.
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Status module selector |
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The module selector will turn green after the first successful simulation. If following
simulations are not successful then a warning will be given. But the module selector
will remain green as long as there are valid simulations in the wind database.
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Convergence monitoring |
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A simulation is automatically stopped if one of the horizontal velocity components
reaches the unphysical high value of 100 m/s. The results are written to the
wind database for inspection.
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Convergence monitoring, spot value position |
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In former versions the spot value position was fixed in the middle of the terrain at ground level (nx/2,ny/2,1),
where nx and ny is the number of cells in x and y-direction.
Now the spot value position can be set anywhere in the horizontal plane. This allows monitoring of the development at
points of special interest, like climatology and turbine positions.
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Convergence monitoring, field value |
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The field value allows the user to choose a solved variable and follows the development of this variable as the
solutions procedure progresses. With this information available it should be easier to introduce measures to ensure
convergence even for very complex models.
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PHOENICS 3.6 |
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The wind field simulations are based on PHOENICS 3.6. In PHOENICS 3.6 dynamic memory allocation is used, see;
FAQ - Wind Fields - Dynamic memory allocation.
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Coupled solver |
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A new coupled flow solver is available for testing, see;
FAQ - Wind Fields - Coupled solver.
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Rotor profile |
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Data is extracted from a cube around the hub, always directed perpendicular to the wind direction.
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Vertical profile interpolation inaccuracies |
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A vertical profile for a given ground position (x,y) is calculated by interpolation.
First, the cell (i,j) is found where the point (x,y) is located. Next, a linear interpolation
is made based on the three closest corner nodes of this cell. In version 4.5.0 an error
was introduced in the cell search. The interpolation was not based on the cell (i,j),
but on the neighbour cell (i-1,j-1). Hence, the interpolation became an extrapolation,
with associated inaccuracies. In models with low wind speed areas the inaccuracies could
eventually give negative speeds, which in turn would give a run time error.
This error has been fixed. In addition the vertical profile calculation has been made more general.
With the introduction of refinement under Terrain, vertical lines from the ground plane to
the upper border does not necessarily follow straight lines anymore. Hence, for all cell levels in the vertical
a cell search is applied. The resulting procedure is become more computational demanding.
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Vertical profile |
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The vertical profile format has been changed. Data concerning the energy production is taken out
and placed in separate files.
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Revert to saved |
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Revert to saved is found in the File menu. When applied all properties are re-set to the values prior to the last
time a module was ran.
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Project properties |
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Project properties are found in the File menu.
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Layouts menu |
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A new Layouts menu is introduced. The Layouts menu is used to create new layouts, chose layouts,
rename layouts and add textures.
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3D Visualisation samples |
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Since the 3D visualisation samples previously included in the installation were large data sets,
they have now been are taken out in the 4.5.0 installation.
Instead there is a link to windsim.com where samples can be downloaded from the menu
3D Visualisation - Download 3D samples... We would encourage you
to share your 3D samples with the rest of the user community, so please send us your samples
and we will publish them at windsim.com.
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Made the WindSim project folder drive independent |
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Made the WindSim project folder drive independent. The project folder is chosen during installation,
the default folder is C:\VECTOR\WindSim Data. The project folder can be changed in the file
C:\VECTOR\WindSim4.5\Environment.xml. Choosing an external drive for the project folder could in old versions
lead to failure due to differences in system time between the two computers. This has been fixed as the
system time is no longer used.
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Texture moved from Terrain to Layouts |
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The property texture is moved from Terrain to Layouts. There are two benefits of this re-arrangement.
1) Different textures can be used for different layouts, 2) the need to re-run Terrain after Wind Fields
is no longer present. In pre 4.5.0 versions the possible need to re-run Terrain in order to include a
Texture would block further work in other modules until also Wind Fields was re-ran. This situation will no
longer occur.
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Refinement |
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The refinement will automatically create a refined grid in the centre of the model. The information is
saved in a blocking file (.bws) which also can be loaded separately.
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Height above terrain |
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The height above terrain can be calculated automatically based on the variation in the open area between
the ground and upper boundary as the model is traversed in west-east and south-north direction.
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Terrain smoothing |
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Irregular areas within the model could be smoothed. Smoothing is used in extreme cases to prevent divergence
due to non-orthogonal cells.
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Orthogonalization |
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Making the grid orthogonal is a technique for improving the convergence in cases with high inclination angles.
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Forest |
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A forest model is implemented based on porosity and drag forces, see presentation from the User Meeting 2005;
Documentation - Papers and presentations.
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Report upgrade on 3D model |
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The report includes new data on the vertical extension of the model and data about the possible blocking effect.
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