scholarly journals Wind tunnel comparison of four VAWT configurations to test load-limiting concept and CFD validation

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 287-294
Author(s):  
Jan Wiśniewski ◽  
Krzysztof Rogowski ◽  
Konrad Gumowski ◽  
Jacek Szumbarski
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Industrial Scale ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Cfd Validation ◽  
Shaft Length ◽  
Operating Cycle ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The article describes results of experimental wind tunnel testing of four different straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine model configurations. The experiment tested a novel concept of vertically dividing and azimuthally shifting a turbine rotor into two parts with a specific uneven height division in order to limit cycle amplitudes and average cycle values of bending moments at the bottom of the turbine shaft to increase product lifetime, especially for industrial-scale turbines. Testing reduction effects of simultaneously including a vertical gap between turbine rotor levels, increasing shaft length but also reducing aerodynamic interaction between rotor levels, has also been performed. Experiment results have shown very significant decreases of bending moment cycle amplitudes and average cycle values, for a wide range of measured wind speeds, for dual-level turbine configurations as compared to a single-level turbine configuration. The vertical spacing between levels equal to a blade's single chord length has proven to be sufficient, on laboratory scale, to limit interaction between turbine levels in order to achieve optimal reductions of tested parameters through an operating cycle shift between two position-locked rotor levels during a turbine's expected lifetime. CFD validation of maintaining the effect on industrial scale has been conducted, confirming the initial conclusions.

scholarly journals Wind tunnel comparison of four VAWT configurations to test load-limiting concept and CFD validation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Wiśniewski ◽  
Krzysztof Rogowski ◽  
Konrad Gumowski ◽  
Jacek Szumbarski
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Industrial Scale ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Cfd Validation ◽  
Shaft Length ◽  
Operating Cycle ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract. The article describes results of experimental wind tunnel testing of four different straight bladed vertical axis wind turbine model configurations. The experiment tested a novel concept of vertically dividing and azimuthally shifting a turbine rotor into two parts with a specific uneven height division in order to limit cycle amplitudes and average cycle values of bending moments at the bottom of the turbine shaft to increase product lifetime, especially for industrial scale turbines. Testing reduction effects of simultaneously including a vertical gap between turbine rotor levels, increasing shaft length but also reducing aerodynamic interaction between rotor levels, has also been performed. Experiment results have shown very significant decreases of bending moment cycle amplitudes and average cycle values, for a wide range of measured wind speeds, for dual-level turbine configurations as compared to a single-level turbine configuration. The vertical spacing between levels equal to a blade's single chord length has proven to be sufficient, in laboratory-scale, to limit interaction between turbine levels in order to achieve optimal reductions of tested parameters through an operating cycle shift between two position-locked rotor levels during a turbine's expected lifetime. CFD validation of maintaining the effect in industrial scale has been conducted, confirming the initial conclusions.

An Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Airfoil Polars for Use in Darrieus Wind Turbines: Part 2 — Post-Stall Data Extrapolation Methods

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Bianchini ◽  
Francesco Balduzzi ◽  
John M. Rainbird ◽  
Joaquim Peiro ◽  
J. Michael R. Graham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Wind Tunnel Tests ◽  
Numerical Assessment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Naca0018 Airfoil ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
Data Extrapolation

Accurate post-stall airfoil data extending to a full range of incidences between −180° to +180° is important to the analysis of Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) since the blades experience a wide range of angles of attack, particularly at the low tip-speed ratios encountered during startup. Due to the scarcity of existing data extending much past stall, and the difficulties associated with obtaining post-stall data by experimental or numerical means, wide use is made of simple models of post-stall lift and drag coefficients in wind turbine modeling (through, for example, BEM codes). Most of these models assume post-stall performance to be virtually independent of profile shape. In this study, wind tunnel tests were carried out on a standard NACA0018 airfoil and a NACA 0018 conformally transformed to mimic the “virtual camber” effect imparted on a blade in a VAWT with a chord-to-radius ratio c/R of 0.25. Unsteady CFD results were taken for the same airfoils both at stationary angles of attack and at angles of attack resulting from a slow VAWT-like motion in an oncoming flow, the latter to better replicate the transient conditions experienced by VAWT blades. Excellent agreement was obtained between the wind tunnel tests and the CFD computations for both the symmetrical and cambered airfoils. Results for both airfoils also compare favorably to earlier studies of similar profiles. Finally, the suitability of different models for post-stall airfoil performance extrapolation, including those of Viterna-Corrigan, Montgomerie and Kirke, was analyzed and discussed.

scholarly journals AIRFOIL SHAPED STRUTS FOR VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samyak Jain ◽  
Gautam Singh ◽  
Varun Yadav ◽  
Rahul Bisht
Keyword(s):  
Aspect Ratio ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Bending Moment ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Aspect Ratios ◽  
Cost Of Energy

Currently, many countries are racing towards switching to clean energy resource (1). Among the options available Solar and Wind are two viable options that are economically feasible. Each day a new development is helping in bringing down the cost of energy extracted from these sources. With currently available technologies, solar energy is almost as expensive as the energy generated from burning coal, whereas wind energy is still slightly expensive (2). However, wind energy could be made cheaper by the use of a vertical axis wind turbine (3). However, structure is a major factor that is holding back the development of VAWTs with better efficiency (4). The efficiency of a VAWT depends upon its aspect ratio. Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the height of the blade to the diameter of the turbine. The lower the aspect ratio, the higher the efficiency (5). However, decreasing the AR would mean either increasing the diameter of the turbine or the height of the blade. In either case, the bending moment would increase on the struts, that connect the blades to the shaft. In this paper we propose, struts with airfoil cross-section. This is because, the lift generated by airfoil struts acts as additional support for the blade, thus increasing our ability to work at lower aspect ratios.

scholarly journals Aerodynamics and Modal Analysis for the Combined Vane type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.38) ◽  
pp. 1395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kadhim H. Suffer ◽  
Yassr Y. Kahtan ◽  
Zuradzman M. Razlan
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Modal Analysis ◽  
Natural Frequencies ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Mode Shapes ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Ansys Fluent ◽  
Starting Torque

The present global energy economy suggests the use of renewable sources such as solar, wind, and biomass to produce the required power. The vertical axis wind turbine is one of wind power applications. Usually, when the vertical axis wind turbine blades are designed from the airfoil, the starting torque problem begins. The main objective of this research is to numerically simulate the combination of movable vanes of a flat plate with the airfoil in a single blade configuration to solve the starting torque problem. CFD analysis in ANSYS-FLUENT and structural analysis in ANSYS of combined blade vertical axis wind turbine rotor has been undertaken. The first simulation is carried out to investigations the aerodynamic characteristic of the turbine by using the finite volume method. While the second simulation is carried out with finite element method for the modal analysis to find the natural frequencies and the mode shape in order to avoid extreme vibration and turbine failure, the natural frequencies, and their corresponding mode shapes are studied and the results were presented with damping and without damping for four selected cases. The predicted results show that the static pressure drop across the blade increase in the active blade side because of the vanes are fully closed and decrease in the negative side because of the all the vanes are fully open. The combined blade helps to increase turbine rotation and so, thus, the power of the turbine increases. While the modal results show that until the 5th natural frequency the effect of damping can be neglected. The predicted results show agreement with those reported in the literature for VAWT with different blade designs.   

scholarly journals Aerodynamic Design of a Small-Scale Model of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (23) ◽  
pp. 1465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Meana-Fernández ◽  
Jesús Manuel Fernández Oro ◽  
Katia María Argüelles Díaz ◽  
Mónica Galdo-Vega ◽  
Sandra Velarde-Suárez
Keyword(s):  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Wind Tunnel Testing ◽  
Aerodynamic Design ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Small Scale Model ◽  
Tunnel Testing

Wind tunnel testing of small-scale models is one of the most useful techniques to predict the performance of real-scale applications. In this work, the aerodynamic design and the construction of a small-scale model of a straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine for wind tunnel testing has been performed. Using a double multiple streamtube model (DMST), different solidity values for the turbine and different airfoil geometries were compared to select the final design. Once an optimal design was selected, a numerical simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was performed in order to obtain a more precise description of the flow field as well as the performance of the model. Future work will comprise the characterization of the model and the comparison of the experimental and numerical results.

Development and Application of a Simulation Tool for Vertical and Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Marten ◽  
Juliane Wendler ◽  
Georgios Pechlivanoglou ◽  
Christian Navid Nayeri ◽  
Christian Oliver Paschereit
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
First Case ◽  
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines ◽  
Lift And Drag ◽  
The Impact

A double-multiple-streamtube vertical axis wind turbine simulation and design module has been integrated within the open-source wind turbine simulator QBlade. QBlade also contains the XFOIL airfoil analysis functionalities, which makes the software a single tool that comprises all functionality needed for the design and simulation of vertical or horizontal axis wind turbines. The functionality includes two dimensional airfoil design and analysis, lift and drag polar extrapolation, rotor blade design and wind turbine performance simulation. The QBlade software also inherits a generator module, pitch and rotational speed controllers, geometry export functionality and the simulation of rotor characteristics maps. Besides that, QBlade serves as a tool to compare different blade designs and their performance and to thoroughly investigate the distribution of all relevant variables along the rotor in an included post processor. The benefits of this code will be illustrated with two different case studies. The first case deals with the effect of stall delaying vortex generators on a vertical axis wind turbine rotor. The second case outlines the impact of helical blades and blade number on the time varying loads of a vertical axis wind turbine.

Numerical Analysis of a Rooftop Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Cristobal Uzarraga-Rodriguez ◽  
A. Gallegos-Mun˜oz ◽  
J. Manuel Riesco A´vila
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Analysis ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Aerodynamic Performance ◽  
Power Coefficient ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Sliding Mesh ◽  
Mesh Model

A numerical analysis of a rooftop vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) for applications in urban area is presented. The numerical simulations were developed to study the flow field through the turbine rotor to analyze the aerodynamic performance characteristics of the device. Three different blade numbers of wind turbine are studied, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Each one of the models was built in a 3D computational model. The effects generated in the performance of turbines by the numbers of blades are considered. A Sliding Mesh Model (SMM) capability was used to present the dimensionless form of coefficient power and coefficient moment of the wind turbine as a function of the wind velocity and the rotor rotational speed. The numerical study was developed in CFD using FLUENT®. The results show the aerodynamic performance for each configuration of wind turbine rotor. In the cases of Rooftop rotor the power coefficient increases as the blade number increases, while in the case of Savonius rotor the power coefficient decrease as the blades number increases.

An Experimental Study of the Aerodynamics and Performance of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine in a Confined and Unconfined Environment

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Dossena ◽  
Giacomo Persico ◽  
Berardo Paradiso ◽  
Lorenzo Battisti ◽  
Sergio Dell'Anna ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Wind Tunnel ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Tip Vortex ◽  
Speed Ratio ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Tip Speed Ratio ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Power Curves

This paper presents the results of a wide experimental study on an H-type vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) carried out at the Politecnico di Milano. The experiments were carried out in a large-scale wind tunnel, where wind turbines for microgeneration can be tested in real-scale conditions. Integral torque and thrust measurements were performed, as well as detailed aerodynamic measurements to characterize the flow field generated by the turbine downstream of the rotor. The machine was tested in both a confined (closed chamber) and unconfined (open chamber) environment, to highlight the effect of wind tunnel blockage on the aerodynamics and performance of the VAWT under investigation. The experimental results, compared with the blockage correlations presently available, suggest that specific correction models should be developed for VAWTs. The experimental thrust and power curves of the turbine, derived from integral measurements, exhibit the expected trends with a peak power coefficient of about 0.28 at tip-speed ratio equal to 2.5. Flow measurements, performed in three conditions for tip speed ratio equal to 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5, show the fully three-dimensional character of the wake, especially in the tip region where a nonsymmetrical wake and tip vortex are found. The unsteady evolution of the velocity and turbulence fields further highlights the effect of aerodynamic loading on the wake unsteadiness, showing the time-dependent nature of the tip vortex and the onset of dynamic stall for tip speed ratio lower than 2.

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