Abstract
Due to increase in energy demand along with environmental awareness, the attention is shifting towards renewable energy sources. A wind turbine developed from Banki water turbine is used in this study as it starts at low-wind speeds and has high starting torque. Experimental investigations are carried out on a test rig equipped with open jet wind tunnel with wind velocity varying from 7 to 11 m/s. Later, 3D steady-state numerical analyses are performed using ANSYS CFX for better understanding of the flow physics of cross flow VAWT. The experimental investigations revealed that cross flow VAWT has a good self-starting ability at relatively low-wind speeds. A peak power coefficient (Cp, max) value of 0.059 is observed for the tip speed ratio (λ) of 0.30. As the tip speed ratio is raised further, the Cp value is observed to decrease gradually. The numerical simulations reveal the reason for the drop in Cp value. This is due to lessening of positive interaction between the flow and cross flow VAWT blades at higher λ due to vortex formation. The torque coefficient is found to decrease almost linearly from a peak value of around 0.49 at λ = 0 to a value of 0 around λ = 0.60. Polar plot between angle and torque shows that torque output of the turbine is nearly same in all directions which reinforce the potency of cross flow VAWT to be omni-directional as it produces the same performance regardless of wind directions.
Experimental tests of the effect of rotor diameter ratio and blade number to the cross-flow wind turbine performance