Aerodynamics is the primary and key issue faced by wind energy engineering, which determines its economy, stability and safety. Based on the development requirement and trend of large-scale, clustering, oceanic, intelligence and digital for wind engineering, the present review is mainly focused on the aerodynamics issues faced by wind energy, such as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), wind turbine wake flow, onshore/offshore/complex-terrain wind farm flow and its interactions. As the second review of a successive work, special interests here are put on the atmospheric inflow and wake characteristics of wind turbines. For these two aspects, this paper summarizes recent research efforts in field measurement, wind tunnel experiment, theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, engineering modelling and artificial intelligence predictions, and also provides some views on the corresponding flow distribution characteristics, evolution laws and key mechanisms. Some discussions and suggestions are made on the aerodynamic challenges faced by wind power development under our country’s specific atmospheric/geographical conditions. Finally, a non-exhaustive perspective on the future of wind energy engineering research is presented. It is expected to provide an important reference for wind power industry planning, technological development and project implementation.

With the establishment of national policies around the world, the development of wind industry has been entering its heyday. Wind turbine systems are continuously upsized from megawatt level to multi-megawatt class, deployed for both onshore wind power and offshore wind power in diverse sea conditions, intelligentized with smart materials, structures and control strategies, and digitized with precise prediction and state-aware control system. These mainstream trends for wind energy development, in the meanwhile, raise tremendous challenging issues for wind energy research and development. Among them, wind turbine aerodynamics will face new problems and great challenges. As the first review of a sucessive work, this study is mainly focused on the aerodynamics of horizontal-axis wind turbines. An explanation for the aerodynamic complexity is addressed at first. Then, research progress on key aerodynamics issues, such as the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine airfoils and blades, as well as modern wind turbine design (special focus is put on the offshore wind power technology and the inevitable typhoon phenomenon, together with the experienced aeroelastic problem caused by the increasement in wind turbine size) and new flow control strategies are discussed. In this process, recent theoretical, experimental, and numerical studies that have contributed to improve our understanding of wind turbine aerodynamic performance, such as aerodynamic forces, flow fields and flow mechanism, are summarized. Additionally, the strength and limitation of these research approaches are discussed. Possible future research trend is analyzed and prospected, providing some references for large-scale wind turbine blade design.