Performance of buoyant shell horizontal axis wind turbine under fluctuating yaw angles. (15th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Saleem, Arslan; Kim, Man-Hoe
• Is Part Of: Energy. Volume 169(2019)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 91
• Publication Date: 2019-02-15
• Subjects: Buoyant airborne turbine -- Aerofoil based shell -- Performance coefficients -- Shell aerodynamics -- Yaw angle; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power (Mechanics) -- Periodicals; Energy consumption -- Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.12.025
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-5442

Abstract

Abstract: The paper presents the effect of fluctuating yaw angle and wind speed on the performance of a horizontal axis airborne wind turbine of three different shell shapes for the high altitude operational conditions. For this purpose, a numerical analysis has been performed by considering the ranges of yaw angle and wind speed of 0 ° − 20 ° and 10 m / s − 25 m / s, respectively. The turbine shell shapes are based on the three aerofoil profiles of NACA-5415, NACA-9415 and NACA-5425 to investigates the influence of the aerofoil camber and thickness. The turbine has been modelled using a NREL Phase IV rotor with the fixed rotor radius of 2 m for all shell configurations. A 3-D numerical analysis has been conducted by implementing k − ω SST turbulence model to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Numerical results demonstrated that the increment in both the tip speed ratio and yaw angle augmented the rotor thrust coefficient. At the high yaw angles, the buoyant shell is prone to encounter instability due to unbalancing of the aerodynamic forces subjected to the shell body. Among all the studied shell configurations, the NACA-9415 aerofoil based shell displayed the relatively higher turbine power coefficient as well as the stable operation. Highlights: Provide aerodynamic performance of BAWT under fluctuating yaw angles. Investigate three NACA airfoil based shell configurations. Report turbine power and rotor thrust coefficients and pressure profile across shell.