https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201611402088
Numerical study on small scale vertical axis wind turbine
1 University of Valladolid, Department of Energy and Fluid Mechanics, Valladolid, Spain
2 University of Guanajuato, Salamanca, Mexico
3 Technologic Institute of Durango, Mexico
a Corresponding author: tpsantos@mail.com
Published online: 28 March 2016
The performance of a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) is numerically analyzed. The set-up is Hdarrieus with three straight blades airfoils NACA attached to a rotating vertical shaft. The wind turbine has solidity equals to the unity operating with wind velocity of 7 m/s. Influence of pitch angle is tested to get design tendencies. 2D, transient, Navier Stokes equations are solved using the code Ansys-Fluent. Conservation equations were solved with a Third-Order MUSCL scheme using SIMPLE to couple pressure and velocity. More than six revolutions must be simulated to get the periodic behavior. Two models of turbulence have been contrasted Realizable k-epsilon and Transition SST concluding the last one show more realistic flow features. Pitch angles of 0º, -6º and -10º have been tested with Tip Speed Ratios ranging from 0.7 and 1.6. The no null pitch angles improve the performance of the wind turbine. Instantaneous and averaged power coefficients as well as detailed flow field around the airfoils are showed.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2016
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
