Hybrid Polymer Additive Manufacturing of a Darrieus Type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Design to Improve Power Generation Efficiency

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sourabh Deshpande ◽  
Nithin Rao ◽  
Nitin Pradhan ◽  
John L. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Blade Design ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
3D Printed

Utilizing the advantages of additive manufacturing methods, redesigning, building and testing of an existing integral Savonius / Darrieus “Lenz2 Wing” style vertical axis wind turbine is predicted to improve power generation efficiency. The current wind turbine blades and supports made from aluminum plate and sheet are limiting the power generation due to the overall weight. The new design is predicted to increase power generation when compared to the current design due to the lightweight spiral Darrieus shaped hollow blade made possible by 3D printing, along with an internal Savonius blade made from aluminum sheet and traditional manufacturing techniques. The design constraints include 3D printing the turbine blades in a 0.4 × 0.4 × 0.3 m work envelope while using a Stratasys Fortus 400mc and thus the wind turbine blades are split into multiple parts with dovetail joint features, when bonded together result in a 1.2 m tall working prototype. Appropriate allowance in the mating dovetail joints are considered to facilitate the fit and bonding, as well as angle, size and placement of the dovetail to maximize strength. The spiral shape and Darrieus style cross section of the blade that provides the required lift enabling it to rotate from the static condition are oriented laterally for 3D printing to maximize strength. The bonding of the dovetail joints is carried out effectively using an acetone solution dip. The auxiliary components of the wind turbine which include the center support pole, top and bottom support, and center Savonius blades are manufactured using lightweight aluminum. Design features are included in the 3D printed blade parts so that they can be assembled with the aluminum parts in bolted connections. Analysis of the 3D CAD models show that the hybrid aluminum and hollow 3D printed blade construction provides a 50% cost savings over a 3D printed fully solid blade design while minimizing weight and maximizing the strength where necessary. Analysis of the redesign includes a detailed weight comparison, structural strength and the cost of production. Results include linear static finite element analysis for the strength in dovetail joint bonding and the aluminum to 3D printed connections. Additional data reported are the time frame for the design and manufacturing of the system, budget, and an operational analysis of the wind turbine with concern for safety. Results are analyzed to determine the advantages in utilizing a hybrid additive manufacturing and aluminum construction for producing a more efficient vertical axis wind turbine. Techniques used in the production of this type of wind turbine blade are planned to be utilized in similar applications such as a lightweight hovercraft propeller blade design to be tested in future research projects.

Numerical Studies on the Effect of Cambered Airfoil Blades on Self-Starting of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Part 1: NACA 0012 and NACA 4415

2015 ◽  
Vol 787 ◽  
pp. 250-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Micha Premkumar ◽  
Sivamani Seralathan ◽  
T. Mohan ◽  
N.N.P. Saran Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Static Pressure Distribution ◽  
Numerical Studies ◽  
Airfoil Blades ◽  
Torque Values ◽  
Naca 0012

This is Part-1 of the two-part paper in considering the effect of cambered airfoil blades on self-starting of vertical axis wind turbine. Part 1 reports the numerical studies on self-starting of vertical axis wind turbine with comparative studies involving NACA 0012 and cambered airfoil NACA 4415. Part 2 of the paper deals with numerical studies of NACA 0018 and cambered air foil NACA 63415. Darrieus type VAWT is attracting many researchers attention for its inherent advantages and its diversified applications. However, a disadvantage is when the rotor is stationary, no net rotational forces arises, even at high-wind speed. The principal advantage of the vertical axis format is their ability to accept wind from any direction without yawing mechanism. However, self-starting capability is the major drawbacks. Moreover, literatures based on computational analysis involving the cambered airfoil are few only. The objective of this present study is to select the suitable airfoil blades on self-starting of VAWT at low-Reynolds number. The numerical studies are carried out to identify self-starting capability of the airfoil using CFD analysis by studying the flow field over the vertical axis wind turbine blades. The commercial CFD code, ANSYS CFX 13.0© was used for the present studies. Initially, the flow over NACA 0012 was simulated and analyzed for different angles of attacks and similarly carried out for NACA 4415. The contours of static pressure distribution and velocity as well as the force and torque were obtained. Even though the lift force for cambered airfoil NACA 4415 is higher, based on the torque values of the above blade profiles, asymmetrical airfoil NACA 0012 is found to be appropriate for self-starring of VAWT.

scholarly journals Numerical Simulation of Aerodynamic Performance of Off-grid Small Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
Qiuyun Mo ◽  
Jiabei Yin ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
Weihao Liu ◽  
Li Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Aerodynamic Performance ◽  
Velocity Fields ◽  
Compact Model ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Rotation Domain ◽  
Rng Turbulence Model

In this paper, a 2D off-grid small compact model of vertical axis wind turbine was established. The sliding grid technology, the RNG turbulence model and the Coupld algorithm was applied to simulate the unsteady value of the model's aerodynamic performance. Through the analysis on the flow field at difference moments, the rules about velocity fields, vortices distributions and the wind turbine's total torque were obtained. The results show that: the speed around wind turbine blades have obvious gradient, and the velocity distribution at different times show large differences in the computional domain. In the rotating domain vorticity is large. With away from the rotation domain, vorticity reduced quickly. In the process of rotating for vertical axis wind turbine, the wind turbine's total torque showed alternating positive and negative changes.

scholarly journals Determination of the number of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine blades based on power spectrum

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 01003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Fedak ◽  
Stanisław Anweiler ◽  
Wojciech Gancarski ◽  
Roman Ulbrich
Keyword(s):  
Power Spectrum ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades

Investigations on modified vertical axis wind turbine blades

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Sakthi Balan ◽  
V. Santhosh Kumar ◽  
M. Ravichandran
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades

scholarly journals Dynamic stall in vertical axis wind turbines: scaling and topological considerations

2018 ◽  
Vol 841 ◽  
pp. 746-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel-John Buchner ◽  
Julio Soria ◽  
Damon Honnery ◽  
Alexander J. Smits
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Vortex Shedding ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Dynamic Stall ◽  
Speed Ratio ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Vertical axis wind turbine blades are subject to rapid, cyclical variations in angle of attack and relative airspeed which can induce dynamic stall. This phenomenon poses an obstacle to the greater implementation of vertical axis wind turbines because dynamic stall can reduce turbine efficiency and induce structural vibrations and noise. This study seeks to provide a more comprehensive description of dynamic stall in vertical axis wind turbines, with an emphasis on understanding its parametric dependence and scaling behaviour. This problem is of practical relevance to vertical axis wind turbine design but the inherent coupling of the pitching and velocity scales in the blade kinematics makes this problem of more broad fundamental interest as well. Experiments are performed using particle image velocimetry in the vicinity of the blades of a straight-bladed gyromill-type vertical axis wind turbine at blade Reynolds numbers of between 50 000 and 140 000, tip speed ratios between $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}=1$ to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}=5$, and dimensionless pitch rates of $0.10\leqslant K_{c}\leqslant 0.20$. The effect of these factors on the evolution, strength and timing of vortex shedding from the turbine blades is determined. It is found that tip speed ratio alone is insufficient to describe the circulation production and vortex shedding behaviour from vertical axis wind turbine blades, and a scaling incorporating the dimensionless pitch rate is proposed.

On the Use of Velocity Data for Load Estimation of a VAWT in Dynamic Stall

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos J. Simão Ferreira ◽  
Gerard J. W. van Bussel ◽  
Gijs A. M. van Kuik ◽  
Fulvio Scarano
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Field ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Dynamic Stall ◽  
Velocity Data ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Image Velocimetry

This paper focuses on evaluating the feasibility of estimating loads on vertical axis wind turbine blades in dynamic stall with velocity data acquired with Particle Image Velocimetry. The study uses numerical simulation data of a 2D Vertical Axis Wind Turbine in dynamic stall to verify sources of error and uncertainty and estimate the accuracy of the method. The integration of the forces from the velocity field overcomes the difficulties and limitations presented by pressure sensors for estimating the local section loads, but adds the difficulty in determining the correct velocity field and its time and spatial derivatives. The analysis also evaluates the use of phase-locked average data as an estimator of average loads.

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