Numerical investigation on aerodynamic performance of a novel vertical axis wind turbine with adaptive blades. (15th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Ying; Sun, Xiaojing; Dong, Xiaohua; Zhu, Bing; Huang, Diangui; Zheng, Zhongquan
• Is Part Of: Energy conversion and management. Volume 108(2016)
• Page Start: 275
• Page End: 286
• Publication Date: 2016-01-15
• Subjects: Adaptive blade -- Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines -- Computational Fluid Dynamics -- Numerical simulation -- Aerodynamic performance; Direct energy conversion -- Periodicals; Energy storage -- Periodicals; Energy transfer -- Periodicals; Énergie -- Conversion directe -- Périodiques; Direct energy conversion; Periodicals; 621.3105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2015.11.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0196-8904

Abstract

Highlights: A novel vertical axis wind turbine with deformed blades is designed. The universal tendency of power characteristics for simulated turbine is found. The whole flow field of different turbines from the aspect of vortex is analyzed. The tracking analysis of vortex at different positions for a blade is conducted. The aerodynamic performance of turbine with three deformed blades is analyzed. Abstract: In this paper, a novel Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine was designed whose blade can be deformed automatically into a desired geometry and thus achieve a better aerodynamic performance. A series of numerical simulations were conducted by utilizing the United Computational Fluid Dynamics code. Firstly, analysis and comparison of the performance of undeformed and deformed blades for the rotors having different blades were conducted. Then, the power characteristics of each simulated turbine were summarized and a universal tendency was found. Secondly, investigation on the effect of blade number and solidity on the power performance of Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine with deformable and undeformable blades was carried out. The results indicated that compared to conventional turbines with same solidity, the maximum percentage increase in power coefficient that the low solidity turbine with three deformable blades can achieve is about 14.56%. When solidity is high and also turbine operates at low tip speed ratio of less than the optimum value, the maximum power coefficient increase for the turbines with two and four deformable blades are 7.51% and 8.07%, respectively. However, beyond the optimal tip speed ratio, the power improvement of the turbine using the deformable blades seems not significant and even slightly worse than the conventional turbines. The last section studied the transient behavior of vortex and turbulent flow structures around the deformable rotor blade to explore the physical mechanism of improving aerodynamic performance. The adaptive blades could obviously suppress the separation of flow from the blade surfaces.