Experimental Study on the Performance and Flow Characteristics of a Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT)

Author(s):  
Isaac Gutierrez ◽  
Atsushi Okajima ◽  
Takahiro Kiwata ◽  
Shigeo Kimura ◽  
Yoshitaro Wakisaka

With the aim of getting basic data to increase the efficiency of a small horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) systems, the wind tunnel experiments were carried out to observe flow characteristics of rotating blades of the turbine, using the oil-film visualization technique, and to measure turbine performance. Flow visualization allowed the identification of laminar flow, laminar separation bubble formation, flow reattachment, turbulent boundary layer, and turbulent separation. The complex patterns on the rotating blade surface were confirmed by the oil-film visualization method and identified. When the trip-tape was employed for control of the blade boundary layer, the efficiency was not significantly improved. Field-tests of this turbine were performed also, and averages of wind speed and net power were calculated from the field measured data using the bins method and were compared with wind tunnel performance tests. The results of field-tests showed for this small HAWT that the highest power coefficient value was 30%.

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Le Quang Sang ◽  
Takao Maeda ◽  
Yasunari Kamada ◽  
Qing'an Li

Offshore wind is generally stronger and more consistent than wind on land. A large part of the offshore wind resource is however located in deep water, where floating wind turbines can harvest more energy. This paper describes a systematic experiment and a simulation analysis (FAST code) about the cyclic pitch control of blades. This work was performed to investigate performance fluctuation of a floating wind turbine utilizing cyclic pitch control. The experiment was carried out in an open wind tunnel with mainstream wind velocity of 10 m/s with the front inflow wind and the oblique inflow wind conditions. A model wind turbine is two-bladed downwind wind turbine with diameter of 1.6 m. Moment and force acts on the model wind turbine are measured by a six-component balance. Fluctuation of power coefficient and thrust coefficient is investigated in the cyclic pitch control. The model wind turbine and the experimental conditions were simulated by FAST code. The comparison of the experimental data and the simulation results of FAST code show that the power coefficient and thrust coefficient are in good agreement. Keywords: Floating Offshore Wind Turbine, Aerodynamic Forces, Cyclic Pitch Control, FAST Code, Wind Tunnel ExperimentArticle History: Received February 11th 2017; Received in revised form April 29th 2017; Accepted June 2nd 2017; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Sang, L.Q., Maeda, T., Kamada, Y., and Li, Q. (2017) Experiment and simulation effect of cyclic pitch control on performance of horizontal axis wind turbine to International Journal of Renewable Energy Develeopment, 6(2), 119-125.https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.6.2.119-125


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1988 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdelgalil Eltayesh ◽  
Magdy Bassily Hanna ◽  
Francesco Castellani ◽  
A.S. Huzayyin ◽  
Hesham M. El-Batsh ◽  
...  

Blockage corrections for the experimental results obtained for a small-scale wind turbine in a wind tunnel are required in order to estimate how the same turbine would perform in real conditions. The tunnel blockage is defined as the ratio of the wind turbine swept area to the wind tunnel cross-section area. Experimental measurements of the power coefficient were performed on a horizontal-axis wind turbine with two rotors of diameter equal to 2 m and different numbers of blades, namely three and five. Measurements were carried out for different tip speed ratios in the closed circuit open test section wind tunnel of the University of Perugia (Italy). The obtained experimental results were compared with the numerical ones carried out in free conditions by using a CFD approach based on the steady-RANS method with the SST k-ω turbulence model, adopting the multiple reference frame (MRF) strategy to reduce the computational effort. The comparison showed that the maximum value of blockage, which is reached in the asymptotic limit at very large tip speed ratio (TSR) values, does not depend appreciably on the number of blades. A higher number of blades, however, makes the occurrence of the maximum blockage come earlier at lower TSRs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 63-71
Author(s):  
Yui-Chuin Shiah ◽  
Chia Hsiang Chang ◽  
Yu-Jen Chen ◽  
Ankam Vinod Kumar Reddy

ABSTRACT Generally, the environmental wind speeds in urban areas are relatively low due to clustered buildings. At low wind speeds, an aerodynamic stall occurs near the blade roots of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), leading to decay of the power coefficient. The research targets to design canards with optimal parameters for a small-scale HAWT system operated at variable rotational speeds. The design was to enhance the performance by delaying the aerodynamic stall near blade roots of the HAWT to be operated at low wind speeds. For the optimal design of canards, flow fields of the sample blades with and without canards were both simulated and compared with the experimental data. With the verification of our simulations, Taguchi analyses were performed to seek the optimum parameters of canards. This study revealed that the peak performance of the optimized canard system operated at 540 rpm might be improved by ∼35%.


Author(s):  
Tom Gerhard ◽  
Michael Sturm ◽  
Thomas H. Carolus

State-of-the-art wind turbine performance prediction is mainly based on semi-analytical models, incorporating blade element momentum (BEM) analysis and empirical models. Full numerical simulation methods can yield the performance of a wind turbine without empirical assumptions. Inherent difficulties are the large computational domain required to capture all effects of the unbounded ambient flow field and the fact that the boundary layer on the blade may be transitional. A modified turbine design method in terms of the velocity triangles, Euler’s turbine equation and BEM is developed. Lift and drag coefficients are obtained from XFOIL, an open source 2D design and analysis tool for subcritical airfoils. A 3 m diameter horizontal axis wind turbine rotor was designed and manufactured. The flow field is predicted by means of a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulation. Two turbulence models were utilized: (i) a standard k-ω-SST model, (ii) a laminar/turbulent transition model. The manufactured turbine is placed on the rooftop of the University of Siegen. Three wind anemometers and wind direction sensors are arranged around the turbine. The torque is derived from electric power and the rotational speed via a calibrated grid-connected generator. The agreement between the analytically and CFD-predicted kinematic quantities up- and downstream of the rotor disc is quite satisfactory. However, the blade section drag to lift ratio and hence the power coefficient vary with the turbulence model chosen. Moreover, the experimentally determined power coefficient is considerably lower as predicted by all methods. However, this conclusion is somewhat preliminary since the existing experimental data set needs to be extended.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artur Bugała ◽  
Olga Roszyk

This paper presents the results of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the airflow for a 300 W horizontal axis wind turbine, using additional structural elements which modify the original shape of the rotor in the form of multi-shaped bowls which change the airflow distribution. A three-dimensional CAD model of the tested wind turbine was presented, with three variants subjected to simulation: a basic wind turbine without the element that modifies the airflow distribution, a turbine with a plano-convex bowl, and a turbine with a centrally convex bowl, with the hyperbolic disappearance of convexity as the radius of the rotor increases. The momentary value of wind speed, recorded at measuring points located in the plane of wind turbine blades, demonstrated an increase when compared to the base model by 35% for the wind turbine with the plano-convex bowl, for the wind speed of 5 m/s, and 31.3% and 49% for the higher approaching wind speed, for the plano-convex bowl and centrally convex bowl, respectively. The centrally convex bowl seems to be more appropriate for higher approaching wind speeds. An increase in wind turbine efficiency, described by the power coefficient, for solutions with aerodynamic bowls was observed.


Author(s):  
Manoj Kumar Chaudhary ◽  
◽  
S. Prakash ◽  

In this research work, the investigation and optimization of small horizontal axis wind turbine blade at low wind speed is pursued. The experimental blades were developed using the 3D printing additive manufacturing technique. The airfoils E210, NACA2412, S1223, SG6043, E216, NACA4415, SD7080, SD7033, S1210 and MAF were tested at the wind speed of 2-6 m/s. The airfoils and optimum blade geometry were investigated with the aid of the Xfoil software at Reynolds number of 100,000. The initial investigation range included tip speed ratios from 3 to 10, solidity from 0.0431 – 0.1181 and angle of attacks from 2o to 20o. Later on these parameters were varied in MATLAB and Xfoil software for optimization and investigation of the power coefficient, lift coefficient, drag coefficient and lift to drag ratio. The cut-in wind speed of the rotors was 2 and 2.5 m/s with the winglet-equipped blades and without winglets. It was found that the E210, SG6043, E216 NACA4415 and MAF airfoil displayed better performance than the NACA 2412, S1223, SD7080, S1210 & SD7003 for the geometry optimized for the operating conditions and manufacturing method described.


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