Wake Measurements Around Operating Wind Turbines

1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. Baker ◽  
S. N. Walker ◽  
P. C. Katen

Researchers at Oregon State University have conducted wind measurement programs to describe the wake behind large horizontal axis turbines at Goodnoe Hills, Washington, (MOD-2), and behind the FloWind vertical axis wind turbine near Ellenburg, Washington. Wake measurements were taken using portable kite anemometers as well as fixed place anemometers under several atmospheric stability conditions and turbine operating conditions. Centerline hub height (midrotor) measurements were taken downwind and crosswind from 3–9 diameters. These wake programs are discussed and the velocity deficits measured are compared to the estimated deficits calculated from wake models.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.13) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhd Khudri Johari ◽  
Muhammad Azim A Jalil ◽  
Mohammad Faizal Mohd Shariff

As the demand for green technology is rising rapidly worldwide, it is important that Malaysian researchers take advantage of Malaysia’s windy climates and areas to initiate more power generation projects using wind. The main objectives of this study are to build a functional wind turbine and to compare the performance of two types of design for wind turbine under different speeds and behaviours of the wind. A three-blade horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) and a Darrieus-type vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) have been designed with CATIA software and constructed using a 3D-printing method. Both wind turbines have undergone series of tests before the voltage and current output from the wind turbines are collected. The result of the test is used to compare the performance of both wind turbines that will imply which design has the best efficiency and performance for Malaysia’s tropical climate. While HAWT can generate higher voltage (up to 8.99 V at one point), it decreases back to 0 V when the wind angle changes. VAWT, however, can generate lower voltage (1.4 V) but changes in the wind angle does not affect its voltage output at all. The analysis has proven that VAWT is significantly more efficient to be built and utilized for Malaysia’s tropical and windy climates. This is also an initiative project to gauge the possibility of building wind turbines, which could be built on the extensive and windy areas surrounding Malaysian airports.  


Author(s):  
David Marten ◽  
Juliane Wendler ◽  
Georgios Pechlivanoglou ◽  
Christian Navid Nayeri ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit

A double-multiple-streamtube vertical axis wind turbine simulation and design module has been integrated within the open-source wind turbine simulator QBlade. QBlade also contains the XFOIL airfoil analysis functionalities, which makes the software a single tool that comprises all functionality needed for the design and simulation of vertical or horizontal axis wind turbines. The functionality includes two dimensional airfoil design and analysis, lift and drag polar extrapolation, rotor blade design and wind turbine performance simulation. The QBlade software also inherits a generator module, pitch and rotational speed controllers, geometry export functionality and the simulation of rotor characteristics maps. Besides that, QBlade serves as a tool to compare different blade designs and their performance and to thoroughly investigate the distribution of all relevant variables along the rotor in an included post processor. The benefits of this code will be illustrated with two different case studies. The first case deals with the effect of stall delaying vortex generators on a vertical axis wind turbine rotor. The second case outlines the impact of helical blades and blade number on the time varying loads of a vertical axis wind turbine.


Author(s):  
Nathan E. Fuller ◽  
David M. Wiens ◽  
Allison L. Johnston ◽  
Jesse J. French

The ideal operating conditions for traditional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) are generally described by high velocity, steady winds, and undisturbed, laminar air flow. In the direct vicinity of populated areas, these conditions can only be achieved at altitudes significantly above or beyond the built-up area, typically twice the height of the tallest surrounding obstruction. The cost of tower material and transmission lines makes placing turbines at optimal operating heights cost-prohibitive in low-income, remote villages. Though not ideal for HAWT operation, the wind close to the earth’s surface and in proximity of residences can be utilized with an appropriately designed vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). These turbines, while having a lower theoretical maximum efficiency, can survive and utilize the turbulent multidirectional winds in this operating region while still providing usable power. This paper highlights the design and analysis work performed by the authors to increase the aerodynamic efficiency of a unique and patented VAWT design in order to optimize it for implementation in remote rural villages. The final product is a kW capacity VAWT of unique geometry based on the previous successful testing of a 100W prototype. Specifically, the authors explored the aerodynamic effects of varying the geometry of the radial arms and center hubs of the turbine using CFD and wind tunnel testing. The design goal was to develop arms with aerodynamic properties that complemented the function of the blades at the appropriate phases of a single revolution. While the previous prototype focused mainly on minimizing drag, this effort sought to design an arm profile that develops high drag in one airflow direction and minimizes drag in the opposite direction. Implementation of these results was realized in a fully functioning drag VAWT. Furthermore, the system was designed to keep the turbine affordable for remote populations with limited resources. This data is compared to theoretical performance calculations, existing wind turbine designs, and against predictions made using scaling factors on preexisting data from the smaller prototype.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
I Kade Wiratama ◽  
Made Mara ◽  
L. Edsona Furqan Prina

The willingness of electrical energy is one energy system has a very important role in the economic development of a country's survival. As one energy source (wind) can be converted into electrical energy with the use of a horizontal axis wind turbine. Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) that we know are two wind turbines in general, ie the horizontal axis wind turbine and vertical axis wind turbine is one type of renewable energy use wind as an energy generator. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the number of blade and the radius chord of rotation (n), Torque (T), Turbine Power (P), Power Coefficient (CP) and Tip Speed Ratio (λ) generated by the horizontal axis wind turbine with form linear taper. The results show that by at the maximum radius of the chord R3 the number blade 4 is at rotation = 302.700 rpm, Pturbine = 7.765 watt, Torque = 0.245 Nm, λ = 3.168 and Cp = 0.403 or 40.3%.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-222
Author(s):  
Jaruwan Chaiyanupong ◽  
Tawit Chitsomboon

Flows through a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) are very complex due to their inherent unsteadiness caused by large variations of the angle of attacks as the turbine is rotating and changing its azimuth angles simultaneously. In addition, a turbine must go through a wide range of operating conditions especially the change in blade speed ratio (BSR). Accurate prediction of flows over VAWT using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model needs a well-tested turbulence model as well as a careful grid control around the airfoil. This paper aimed to compare various turbulence models and seek the most accurate one. Furthermore, grid convergence was studied using the Roache method to determine the sufficient number of grid elements around the blade section. The three-dimensional grid was generated by extrution from the two-dimensional grid along with the appropriate y+ controlling. Comparisons were made among the three turbulence models that are widely used namely: the RNG model, the shear stress transport k-ω model (SST) and the Menter’s shear stress transport k-ω model (transition SST). Results obtained clearly showed that turbulence models significantly affected computational accuracy. The SST turbulence model showed best agreement with reported experimental data at BSR lower than 2.35, while the transition SST model showed better results when BSR is higher than 2.35. In addition, grid extruding technique with y+ control could reduce total grid requirement while maintaining acceptable prediction accuracy.Article History: Received April 15th 2018; Received in revised form June 16th 2018; Accepted September 17th 2018; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Chaiyanupong,J and Chitsomboon, T. (2018) Effects of Turbulence Models and Grid Densities on Computational Accuracy of Flows Over a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 7(3), 213-222.http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.3.213-222


Author(s):  
Jelena Svorcan ◽  
◽  
Ognjen Peković ◽  
Toni Ivanov ◽  
Miloš Vorkapić ◽  
...  

With wind energy extraction constantly increasing, the interest in small-scale urban wind turbines is also expanding. Given that these machines often work in adverse operating conditions (Earth’s boundary layer, vortex trails of surrounding objects, small and changeable wind speeds), additional elements that locally augment wind velocity and facilitate turbine start may be installed. This paper investigates possible benefits of adding an optimized flow concentrator to a vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotor. Three-dimensional, unsteady, turbulent, incompressible flow simulations of both isolated rotor consisting of three straight blades and a rotor with flow concentrator have been performed in ANSYS FLUENT by finite volume method for several different operational regimes. This type of flow simulations is challenging since flow angles are high, numerous flow phenomena and instabilities are present and the interaction between the blades and detached vortices can be significant. The rotational motion of the blades is solved by the unsteady Sliding Mesh (SM) approach. Flow field is modeled by Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations with k-ω SST turbulence model used for closure. Both quantitative and qualitative examinations of the obtained numerical results are presented. In particular, the two computed power coefficient curves are compared and the advantages of installing a flow concentrator are accentuated.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 7246
Author(s):  
Sungmok Hwang ◽  
Cheol Yoo

As the wind power market grows rapidly, the importance of technology for real-time monitoring and diagnosis of wind turbines is increasing. However, most of the developed technologies and research mainly focus on large horizontal-axis wind turbines, and research conducted on small- and medium-sized wind turbines is rare. In this study, a novel low-cost and real-time health monitoring and diagnosis system for the small H-type Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine is proposed. Turbine operating conditions were classified into parked/idle and power production. In the case of the power production condition, abnormality diagnosis was performed using key monitoring parameters, including vibration, fundamental frequency, the bending stress of the tower and generator vibration. The turbine abnormalities were diagnosed in two stages by applying the alert and alarm limits, determined by referring to international standards and material properties and the long-term measurement data together.


Author(s):  
Nicoletta Franchina ◽  
Otman Kouaissah ◽  
Giacomo Persico ◽  
Marco Savini

The paper presents the results of a computational study on the aerodynamics and the performance of a small-scale Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) for distributed micro-generation. The complexity of VAWT aerodynamics, which are inherently unsteady and three-dimensional, makes high-fidelity flow models extremely demanding in terms of computational cost, limiting the analysis to mainly 2D or 2.5D Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD) approaches. This paper discusses how a proper setting of the computational model opens the way for carrying out fully 3D unsteady CFD simulations of a VAWT. Key aspects of the flow model and of the numerical solution are discussed, in view of limiting the computational cost while maintaining the reliability of the predictions. A set of operating conditions is considered, in terms of tip-speed-ratio (TSR), covering both peak efficiency condition as well as off-design operation. The fidelity of the numerical predictions is assessed via a systematic comparison with the experimental benchmark data available for this turbine, consisting of both performance and wake measurements carried out in the large-scale wind tunnel of the Politecnico di Milano. The analysis of the flow field on the equatorial plane allows highlighting its time-dependent evolution, with the aim of identifying both the periodic flow structures and the onset of dynamic stall. The full three-dimensional character of the computations allows investigating the aerodynamics of the struts and the evolution of the trailing vorticity at the tip of the blades, eventually resulting in periodic large-scale vortices.


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