scholarly journals Experimental investigation of a variable geometry vertical axis wind turbine

2020 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2093513
Author(s):  
Simon A Prince ◽  
Carmine Badalamenti ◽  
Dimitar Georgiev

An experimental study is presented on the performance of a vertical axis wind turbine with variable blade geometry of the design developed by Austin Farrah. This is experimentally compared with the performance of a correspondingly sized Bach-type Savonius turbine using the same electrical generator and measurement instrumentation in a wind tunnel. Experiments were performed for Reynolds numbers, based on blade chord, in the range 5 × 103 to 1 × 105, and for blade settings between −40° and +40o. The study shows that for the tip speed ratios that have been investigated, the Farrah vertical axis wind turbine design can only marginally outperform a corresponding two-bladed Bach-type Savonius turbine and then only when its blades are set to 40° pitch angle. The presence of a small inner cylinder, which rotates with the turbine, does not enhance its performance due to the fact that it is immersed in an extensive column of relatively static air.

2020 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 02011
Author(s):  
Valentin Obretenov ◽  
Rossen Tliev

This paper presents the results from an experimental study of a Vertical Axis Wind turbine model with a guiding nozzle. The geometry of the nozzle is synthesized by an original methodology. The performance characteristics of the turbine are investigated when changing the number of the blades and their pitch angle. The obtained results allow us to generate generalized characteristics that can be used in the design of new turbines of this type. The results of the pilot studies showing higher efficiency than the classical Darrieus wind turbines (up to 50 % which is close to the Betz limit).


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-415
Author(s):  
H. Abu-Thuraia ◽  
C. Aygun ◽  
M. Paraschivoiu ◽  
M.A. Allard

Advances in wind power and tidal power have matured considerably to offer clean and sustainable energy alternatives. Nevertheless, distributed small-scale energy production from wind in urban areas has been disappointing because of very low efficiencies of the turbines. A novel wind turbine design — a seven-bladed Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT) that is horizontally oriented inside a diffuser shroud and mounted on top of a building — has been shown to overcome the drawback of low efficiency. The objective this study was to analyze the performance of this novel wind turbine design for different wind directions and for different guide vanes placed at the entrance of the diffuser shroud. The flow field over the turbine and guide vanes was analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on a 3D grid for multiple tip-speed ratios (TSRs). Four wind directions and three guide-vane angles were analyzed. The wind-direction analysis indicates that the power coefficient decreases to about half when the wind is oriented at 45° to the main axis of the turbine. The analysis of the guide vanes indicates a maximum power coefficient of 0.33 at a vane angle of 55°.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateusz Jakubowski ◽  
Roman Starosta ◽  
Pawel Fritzkowski

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 168781401879954
Author(s):  
Soo-Yong Cho ◽  
Sang-Kyu Choi ◽  
Jin-Gyun Kim ◽  
Chong-Hyun Cho

In order to augment the performance of vertical axis wind turbines, wind power towers have been used because they increase the frontal area. Typically, the wind power tower is installed as a circular column around a vertical axis wind turbine because the vertical axis wind turbine should be operated in an omnidirectional wind. As a result, the performance of the vertical axis wind turbine depends on the design parameters of the wind power tower. An experimental study was conducted in a wind tunnel to investigate the optimal design parameters of the wind power tower. Three different sizes of guide walls were applied to test with various wind power tower design parameters. The tested vertical axis wind turbine consisted of three blades of the NACA0018 profile and its solidity was 0.5. In order to simulate the operation in omnidirectional winds, the wind power tower was fabricated to be rotated. The performance of the vertical axis wind turbine was severely varied depending on the azimuthal location of the wind power tower. Comparison of the performance of the vertical axis wind turbine was performed based on the power coefficient obtained by averaging for the one periodic azimuth angle. The optimal design parameters were estimated using the results obtained under equal experimental conditions. When the non-dimensional inner gap was 0.3, the performance of the vertical axis wind turbine was better than any other gaps.


2014 ◽  
Vol 529 ◽  
pp. 296-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zuo ◽  
Shun Kang

The aerodynamic performance and the bypass flow field of a vertical axis wind turbine under self-starting are investigated using CFD simulations in this paper. The influence of pitch angle variations on the performance of the wind turbine during self-starting is presented. A two-dimensional model of the wind turbine with three blades is employed. A commercial software FlowVision is employed in this paper, which uses dynamic Cartesian grid. The SST turbulence model is used for turbulence modeling, which assumes the flow full turbulent. Based on the comparison between the computed time-dependent variations of the rotation speed with the experimental data, the time-dependent variations of the torque are presented. The characteristics of self-starting of the wind turbine are analyzed with the pitch angle of 0o、-2oand 2o. The influence of pitch angle variations on two-dimensional unsteady viscous flow field through velocity contours is discussed in detail.


Author(s):  
Alexandrina Untaroiu ◽  
Lydia R. Barker ◽  
Houston G. Wood ◽  
Robert J. Ribando ◽  
Paul E. Allaire

As a pollution free source of energy, wind is among the most popular and fastest growing forms of electricity generation in the world. Compared to their horizontal axis counterparts, vertical axis wind turbines have lagged considerably in development and implementation. The University of Virginia Rotating Machinery and Controls laboratory has undertaken a systematic review of vertical axis wind turbine design in order to address this research gap, starting with establishment of a methodology for vertical axis wind turbine simulation using ANSYS CFX. A 2D model of a recently published Durham University vertical axis wind turbine was generated. Full transient CFD simulations using the moving mesh capability available in ANSYS-CFX were run from turbine start-up to operating speed and compared with the experimental data in order to validate the technique. A scalable k-ε turbulence model transient CFD simulation has been demonstrated to accurately predict vertical axis wind turbine operating speed within 12% error using a two-dimensional structured mesh in conjunction with a carefully specified series of boundary conditions.


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