Numerical Analysis of a Rooftop Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Author(s):  
N. Cristobal Uzarraga-Rodriguez ◽  
A. Gallegos-Mun˜oz ◽  
J. Manuel Riesco A´vila

A numerical analysis of a rooftop vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) for applications in urban area is presented. The numerical simulations were developed to study the flow field through the turbine rotor to analyze the aerodynamic performance characteristics of the device. Three different blade numbers of wind turbine are studied, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Each one of the models was built in a 3D computational model. The effects generated in the performance of turbines by the numbers of blades are considered. A Sliding Mesh Model (SMM) capability was used to present the dimensionless form of coefficient power and coefficient moment of the wind turbine as a function of the wind velocity and the rotor rotational speed. The numerical study was developed in CFD using FLUENT®. The results show the aerodynamic performance for each configuration of wind turbine rotor. In the cases of Rooftop rotor the power coefficient increases as the blade number increases, while in the case of Savonius rotor the power coefficient decrease as the blades number increases.

2012 ◽  
Vol 499 ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Qi Yao ◽  
Ying Xue Yao ◽  
Liang Zhou ◽  
S.Y. Zheng

This paper presents a simulation study of an H-type vertical axis wind turbine. Two dimensional CFD model using sliding mesh technique was generated to help understand aerodynamics performance of this wind turbine. The effect of the pith angle on H-type vertical axis wind turbine was studied based on the computational model. As a result, this wind turbine could get the maximum power coefficient when pitch angle adjusted to a suited angle, furthermore, the effects of pitch angle and azimuth angle on single blade were investigated. The results will provide theoretical supports on study of variable pitch of wind turbine.


Author(s):  
N. C. Uzarraga-Rodriguez ◽  
A. Gallegos-Muñoz ◽  
Maria T. Parra-Santos ◽  
Juan M. Belman-Flores

A numerical analysis of a three-bladed straight vertical axis wind turbine with NACA0015 airfoils-shaped is presented. The effect generated on the moment coefficient and power coefficient of the wind turbine rotor by the twist angle variation at the chord ends was analyzed. The configurations included the variation of blade twist angle of 15° and 30° located at 70%, 80% and 90% of chord length from leading end of the straight blade. The numerical study was developed in a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using FLUENT®. This code allows to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations and the transport equations of the turbulence quantities. The results show the aerodynamic performance for each configuration of the blade twist angle in the wind turbine, and are compared with data obtained from straight blade without twist angle. The wind turbine performance decrease about 67% as the blade twist angle increases, due to an increment in the drag force causing a negative moment against the rotation of vertical axis wind turbine. Also, the surface pressure distribution in a VAWT’s is presented.


Author(s):  
H. Flores-Saldaña ◽  
A. Gallegos-Muñoz ◽  
N. C. Uzarraga-Rodriguez ◽  
V. H. Rangel-Hernandez

This work presents a numerical analysis of a four-bladed Rooftop vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). The effects generated on the performance of turbine by the overlap variation between blades of wind rotor were analyzed. The numerical simulations were developed using commercial software based on Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). Each one of the models generated was built in a 3D computational model. A sliding mesh model (SMM) capability was used to present in dimensionless form the moment coefficient and power coefficient of the wind turbine based on the relationship between wind speed and rotor rotational speed. The results show that the aerodynamic performance is better with overlap between rotor blades, resulting in a significant increase in the moment coefficient and power coefficient. Having that in the cases of four-bladed Rooftop rotor with overlap both coefficients increase about 29% comparing with four-bladed Rooftop rotor without overlap between blades.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 750-753
Author(s):  
Li-Hua Zhao ◽  
Ming Liu

In this paper, using sliding mesh model, the numerical simulation of small vertical axis wind turbine aerodynamic performance was studied with FLUENT software. Got change rule of four same thickness and different camber‘s NACA series asymmetrical airfoil moment coefficient of the wind turbine and wind power machine with the tip speed ratio. Wind turbine benchmark blade around the flow field was studied. Research shows that within a certain range, small vertical axis wind turbine aerodynamic performance be promoted if the airfoil relative thickness increases. In the case of large attack angle, the wind turbine blade is easy to be separated. It provides a theoretical reference for optimal design of a small vertical axis wind turbine.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 771-780
Author(s):  
Anh Ngoc VU ◽  
Ngoc Son Pham

This study describes an effectively analytic methodology to investigate the aerodynamic performance of H vertical axis wind turbine (H-VAWT). An in-house code based on double multiple stream tube theory (DMST) coupled with dynamic stall and wake correction is implemented to estimate the power coefficient. Design optimization of airfoil shape is conducted to study the influences of the dynamic stall and turbulent wakes. Airfoil shape is universally investigated by using the Class/Shape function transformation method. The airfoil study shows that the upper curve tends to be less convex than the lower curve in order to extract more energy of the wind upstream and generate less drag of the blade downstream. The optimal results show that the power coefficient increases by 6.5% with the new airfoil shape.


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Yan ◽  
Eldad Avital ◽  
John Williams ◽  
Jiahuan Cui

Abstract A numerical study was carried out to investigate the effects of a Gurney flap (GF) on the aerodynamics performance of the NACA 00 aerofoil and an associated three-blade rotor of a H-type Darrieus wind turbine. The flow fields around a single aerofoil and the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) rotor are studied using unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations (URANS). The height of GF ranges from 1% to 5% of the aerofoil chord length. The results show that the GF can increase the lift and lift-to-drag ratio of the aerofoil as associated with the generation of additional vortices near the aerofoil trailing edge. As a result, adding a GF can significantly improve the power coefficient of the VAWT at low tip speed ratio (TSR), where it typically gives low power production. The causing mechanism is discussed in detail, pointing to flow separation and dynamic stall delay.


2013 ◽  
Vol 859 ◽  
pp. 28-32
Author(s):  
Yi Mei ◽  
Jian Jun Qu ◽  
Xiao Ya Liu

This paper presents a numerical study of a vertical axis wind rotor configuration. Below constant wind condition 8m/s, rotor power performance was investigated over variable turbine configurations. Illustrated by the simulation, increasing rotor cord to radius ratio or blade numbers will enhance the generation of vortexes and flow separation on blades, leading to the significant degradation of turbine performance. It can be conclude form the numerical analysis, a vertical axis wind turbine with high height to radius ratio applied in urban areas experienced better performance when operating in optimal tip speed ratio, with rotor cord to radius ratio between 0.2 and 0.4 and blade number of 3 or 4.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Spotorno Vieira ◽  
Luiz Alberto Oliveira Rocha ◽  
Liércio André Isoldi ◽  
Elizaldo Domingues Dos Santos

In this work is performed a numerical study of the main operational principle of a VAWT (Vertical Axis Wind turbine) and the influence of the distance between two aligned turbines over their power coefficient. The main aims here are to evaluate the applicability of the numerical model studied here in further optimization studies of VAWT and evaluate the effect of the distance between turbines (d) on the device power coefficient. To achieve these goals, it is considered an incompressible, transient and turbulent flow on a two dimensional domain with two fluid zones, one being rotational representing the rotation of the blades. The time-averaged mass conservation equations and momentum are numerically solved using the finite volume method, more precisely with the software FLUENTÒ. For the approach of turbulence is used to classical modeling of turbulence (RANS) with standard model k - ε. Other geometric parameters: turbine radius (R), the airfoil profile (NACA0018) and chorus were held constant. The verification results showed a good agreement with those presented in the literature, even employing a simplified domain. It was also observed that the distance (d) directly affects the power of the second turbine. For the best case, with d =10m, the downstream turbine showed an approximate 50% drop in power coefficient in comparison with that obtained for the upstream turbine. While in the worst case, with d =2m, the power coefficient for the downstream turbine decreased two hundred times in comparison with that achieved for the upstream one. It was also noted that there is a great possibility of disposal area optimization of turbines in future studies. Keywords: Vertical Axis Wind turbine, Numerical study, Power coefficient, turbine distance.


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