scholarly journals An experimental study of the optimal design parameters of a wind power tower used to improve the performance of vertical axis wind turbines

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.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijeet M. Malge ◽  
Prashant Maruti Pawar

Purpose Three different configurations of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) were fabricated by changing the storey height and their orientations. The purpose of this study is to find the effect of storey height and orientation on the performance of wind turbines. The multistory VAWT has three storeys. The first configuration had increased middle storey height, with 0–90-0 orientation of blades. Wherein the second turbine had equal storey heights. The third configuration had increased middle storey height with 0–120-240 orientation of blades. The blades were tested numerically and experimentally. Design/methodology/approach In this research work, prototypes of innovative multistory VAWT were built with different configurations and orientations. Three configurations of three-storey VAWT were fabricated by varying the height of storey of turbines. The orientations were made by keeping the storeys orthogonal to each other. Multistory VAWT was tested numerically and experimentally. ANSYS Fluent was used for computational fluid dynamic analysis of VAWT. K-epsilon model was used for numerical analysis of wind turbine. Experimentation was carried out in a wind tunnel for different tip speed ratios (TSR). Findings The three configurations of innovative multistory VAWT were tested numerically and experimentally for different TSR. It has been found that the VAWT with equal storey height had a better performance as compared to the other two configurations with increased middle storey height. The power coefficient of equal storey height VAWT was about 22%, wherein the power coefficient of turbines with reduced upper and lower storey height was between 5%–8% Research limitations/implications The research work of multi-storey VAWT is very novel and original. The findings of the research will contribute to the existing work done in the field of VAWT. This will help other researchers to have insight into the development of multistory VAWT. The effect of storey height and configuration of multi-storey VAWT is studied numerically and experimentally, which concludes that the performance of equal storey is superior as compared to other configurations. Practical implications The multi-storey concept of VAWT was developed to counter the problem of wind direction. The blades of each storey were arranged orthogonal to each other. This helped to harness wind power irrespective of the direction of the wind. This will make the VAWT more sustainable and financially viable for domestic use. Social implications The turbines are specially designed for remotely located housed in rural areas where the power grid is not yet reached. Users can install the turbine on their rooftop and harness wind power of 100 W capacity. This will help them to make their life easy. Originality/value This research work is very original and first of a kind. The multistory concept of the wind turbine was checked for the effect of storey height and orientations of blades on its performance. Different configurations and orientations of the vertical axis were designed and developed for the first time.


The consumption of electricity in urban as well as rural is increasing every day and became an essential commodity for household and industrial purposes. Unfortunately the availability of electrical energy in India is not sufficient to the required demand and it is essential to discover and generate energy from non-conventional sources with cheap cost. On the same time it is necessary to reduce the consumption of conventional sources and to save fuel. Among all the renewable resources, wind is one of the best resources available all the time at free of cost. Especially vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) are self-starting, omni directional. They require no yaw mechanism to continuously orient towards the wind direction and provide a more reliable energy conversion technology, as compared to horizontal axis wind turbine. Particularly savonius vertical axis wind turbines (SVAWT) are suitable and practically possible at low or uncertain wind speed regimes. They can be fitted on rooftops and also suitable for the urban areas where electricity is not available properly. This project deals with the fabrication and performance evaluation of savonius vertical axis wind turbine using two blade rotor. The amount of power developed by the wind turbine is calculated under theoretical and practical conditions and aerodynamics coefficients are also estimated. And various design parameters of savonious rotor are identified and determined.


Author(s):  
Roman Albertovich Ilyin ◽  
Nickolai Dmitrievich Shishkin

The designs of wind power plants (wind turbines) and high-speed characteristics of a number of promising vessels using wind are considered. It has been shown that the vessels with sails of different types have the lowest average speed and do not exceed 16 knots. Greater average speed (about 17 knots) have wind-powered vessels with Flettner rotors, and the maximum average speed (19 knots) have wind-powered vessels with wind power plants, which testifies to greater efficiency of blade wind turbines. Estimation of the parameters of the combined vertical axis wind turbines based on H-Darrieus and Savonius rotors for a small wind-driven ship. With wind speed of 10 m/s and swept rotor area of 80 m2 the useful power of a small-size wind-driven ship with combined vertical axis wind turbine is 13 kW (18 h/p). When necessary, 2-4 combined vertical axis wind turbines can be placed on board the ship. With wind speed Vs = 10-15 m/s speed of a small vessel with combined vertical axis wind turbine can reach 14-20 knots. The use of combined vertical axis wind turbine can save up to 50 % of fuel, and the payback period will not exceed 4-5 years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2110039
Author(s):  
Amgad Dessoky ◽  
Thorsten Lutz ◽  
Ewald Krämer

The present paper investigates the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of the H-rotor Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) combined with very promising energy conversion and steering technology; a fixed guide-vanes. The main scope of the current work is to enhance the aerodynamic performance and assess the noise production accomplished with such enhancement. The studies are carried out in two phases; the first phase is a parametric 2D CFD simulation employing the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach to optimize the design parameters of the guide-vanes. The second phase is a 3D CFD simulation of the full turbine using a higher-order numerical scheme and a hybrid RANS/LES (DDES) method. The guide-vanes show a superior power augmentation, about 42% increase in the power coefficient at λ = 2.75, with a slightly noisy operation and completely change the signal directivity. A remarkable difference in power coefficient is observed between 2D and 3D models at the high-speed ratios stems from the 3D effect. As a result, a 3D simulation of the capped Darrieus turbine is carried out, and then a noise assessment of such configuration is assessed. The results show a 20% increase in power coefficient by using the cap, without significant change in the noise signal.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2110618
Author(s):  
Syed Abdur Rahman Tahir ◽  
Muhammad Shakeel Virk

Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) can be a promising solution for electricity production in remote ice prone territories of high north, where good wind resources are available, but icing is a challenge that can affect its optimum operation. A lot of research has been made to study the icing effects on the conventional horizontal axis wind turbines, but the literature about vertical axis wind turbines operating in icing conditions is still scarce, despite the importance of this topic. This paper presents a review study about existing knowledge of VAWT operation in icing condition. Focus has been made in better understanding of ice accretion physics along VAWT blades and methods to detect and mitigate icing effects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 897 (1) ◽  
pp. 012001
Author(s):  
Oleg Goman ◽  
Andrii Dreus ◽  
Anton Rozhkevych ◽  
Krystyna Heti

Abstract Until recently, vertical-axis wind turbines are less extensively developed in wind energetics. At the same time, there are a number of advantages in turbines of such type like their independence from the change of wind direction, lower levels of aerodynamic and infrasound noises, higher structural reliability (compared to horizontal engines), etc. With these advantages, vertical-axis wind turbines demonstrate promising capacities. Inter alia, the productiveness of such turbines can be refined through the aerodynamic improvement of the structure and comprehensive optimization of the rotor geometry. The main purpose of the presented paper is to aerodynamically improve vertical wind turbine in order to increase the efficiency of wind energy conversion into electricity. Within the framework of the classical theory of impulses, this article presents a study of the effect of variation in Reynolds number on the general energy characteristics of a vertical-axis wind turbine with two blades. The integral approach makes it possible to use a single-disk impulse model to determine the main specific indicators of the system. The power factor was calculated based on the obtained value of the shaft torque factor, which in turn was determined by numerically integrating the total torque generated by the wind turbine. To calculate the test problem, we used the classic NACA airfoils: 0012, 0015, 0018 and 0021. The proposed calculation algorithm makes it possible not to indicate the Reynolds number and corresponding aerodynamic coefficients at the beginning of the calculation, but to recalculate it depending on the relative speed, position of the airfoil and the linear speed of the airfoil around the circumference. Proposed modern design techniques can be helpful for optimization of vertical wind turbines.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Zilberman ◽  
Abdelaziz Abu Sbaih ◽  
Ibrahim Hadad

Abstract Wind energy has become an important resource for the growing demand for clean energy. In 2020 wind energy provided more than 6% of the global electricity demand. It is expected to reach 7% at the end of 2021. The installation growth rate of small wind turbines, though, is relatively slow. The reasons we are interested in the small vertical axis wind turbines are their low noise, environmentally friendly, low installation cost, and capable of being rooftop-mounted. The main goal of the present study is an optimization process towards achieving the optimal cost-effective vertical wind turbine. Thirty wind turbine models were tested under the same conditions in an Azrieli 30 × 30 × 90 cm low-speed wind tunnel at 107,000 Reynolds number. The different types of models were obtained by parametric variations of five basic models, maintaining the same aspect ratio but varying the number of bucket phases, the orientation angles, and the gaps between the vanes. The best performing turbine model was made of one phase with two vanes of non-symmetric bipolynomial profiles that exhibited 0.2 power coefficient, relative to 0.16 and 0.13 that were obtained for symmetrical polynomial and the original Savonius type turbines, respectively. Free rotation, static forces and moments, and dynamic moments and power were measured for the sake of comparison and explanation for the variations in performances of different types of turbines. CFD calculations were used to understand the forces and moment behaviors of the optimized turbine.


Author(s):  
Zhenlong Wu ◽  
Yihua Cao

Rainfall is a common meteorological condition that wind turbines may encounter and by which their performance may be affected. This paper comprehensively investigates the effects of rainfall on a NACA 0015 airfoil which is commonly used in vertical axis wind turbines. A CFD-based Eulerian–Lagrangian multiphase approach is proposed to study the static, rotating, and oscillating performances of the NACA 0015 airfoil in rainy conditions. It is found that for the different airfoil movements, the airfoil performance can seriously be deteriorated in the rain condition. Rain also causes premature boundary layer separations and more severe flow recirculations than in the dry condition. These findings seem to be the first open reports on rain effects on wind turbine performance and should be of some significance to practical design.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Cevasco ◽  
M Collu ◽  
CM Rizzo ◽  
M Hall

Despite several potential advantages, relatively few studies and design support tools have been developed for floating vertical axis wind turbines. Due to the substantial aerodynamics differences, the analyses of vertical axis wind turbine on floating structures cannot be easily extended from what have been already done for horizontal axis wind turbines. Therefore, the main aim of the present work is to compare the dynamic response of the floating offshore wind turbine system adopting two different mooring dynamics approaches. Two versions of the in-house aero-hydro-mooring coupled model of dynamics for floating vertical axis wind turbine (FloVAWT) have been used, employing a mooring quasi-static model, which solves the equations using an energetic approach, and a modified version of floating vertical axis wind turbine, which instead couples with the lumped mass mooring line model MoorDyn. The results, in terms of mooring line tension, fatigue and response in frequency have been obtained and analysed, based on a 5 MW Darrieus type rotor supported by the OC4-DeepCwind semisubmersible.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidong Zhang ◽  
Kaiqi Zhu ◽  
Junwei Zhong ◽  
Ling Zhang ◽  
Tieliu Jiang ◽  
...  

The central shaft is an important and indispensable part of a small scale urban vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). Normally, it is often operated at the same angular velocity as the wind turbine. The shedding vortices released by the rotating shaft have a negative effect on the blades passing the wake of the wind shaft. The objective of this study is to explore the influence of the wake of rotating shaft on the performance of the VAWT under different operational and physical parameters. The results show that when the ratio of the shaft diameter to the wind turbine diameter (α) is 9%, the power loss of the wind turbine in one revolution increases from 0% to 25% relative to that of no-shaft wind turbine (this is a numerical experiment for which the shaft of the VAWT is removed in order to study the interactions between the shaft and blade). When the downstream blades pass through the wake of the shaft, the pressure gradient of the suction side and pressure side is changed, and an adverse effect is also exerted on the lift generation in the blades. In addition, α = 5% is a critical value for the rotating shaft wind turbine (the lift-drag ratio trend of the shaft changes differently). In order to figure out the impacts of four factors; namely, tip speed ratios (TSRs), α, turbulence intensity (TI), and the relative surface roughness value (ks/ds) on the performance of a VAWT system, the Taguchi method is employed in this study. The influence strength order of these factors is featured by TSRs > ks/ds > α > TI. Furthermore, within the range we have analyzed in this study, the optimal power coefficient (Cp) occurred under the condition of TSR = 4, α = 5%, ks/ds = 1 × 10−2, and TI = 8%.


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