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Numerical study on the performance effect of solidity on the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine

Shengmao Li
Engineering College Northeast Agricultural University Harbin, China lsmkey@163.com

Yan Li
Engineering College Northeast Agricultural University Harbin, China ly_neau@yahoo.com.cn computation results, the effects of solidity on both the static and dynamic performance of the SB-VAWT were discussed. II. METHODS FOLLOWED

AbstractThe solidity is one of the most important factors which greatly affects the performance of the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine (SB-VAWT). In this study, numerical computations were carried out on a small model of the SB-VAWT with different solidities to invest its performance effects. Two kinds of solidity were decided, and for each one, three patterns were selected by changing the blade chord and number. Numerical computations based on the 2 dimensions incompressible steady flow were made. Flow fields around the SB-VAWT were obtained, and the torque and power coefficients were also calculated. According to the computation results under the conditions of this study, the effects of solidity on both the static and dynamic performance of the SB-VAWT were discussed. Keywords-vertical axis wind turbine;straight-bladed; numerical computation; solidity; stactic torque;power

A. Models and Numerical Computational Method The solidity () was defined as the ratio of rotor blade surface area to the frontal, swept area that the rotor passes through, and it can be calculated simply by (1).

NC 2R

(1)

Where N is blade number, C is blade chord (m), R is wind turbine radius (m). The radius of the model of SB-VAWT designed for computation in this study was 0.25meter. A centre shaft with the radius of 0.01meter was also set. According to the geometrical parameters, two kinds of the solidity, blade chord and number were decided respectively shown in Tab. 1. Furthermore, two kinds of blade aerofoil (NACA0012 and NACA0018) were used to invest to the effects of aerofoil. Therefore, by changing the blade number, chord and aerofoil, six simulation patterns were decided (see Tab. 2). The model of SB-VAWT was set in a 5meter5meter area, which represented the flow field (see Fig. 1). The wind speed used is 10meters per second. Triangular mesh grids were provided for computation, and the model was discretised into approximately 80,000 elements (see Fig. 2).
TABLE I. number 1 2

MAIN PARAMETERS OF THE MODEL

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the increasing of energy shortage and environment pollution, the development and utilization of renewable energy become more and more important. Wind energy as a kind of renewable energy is friendly to the surrounding environment and has great amount of resource. Therefore, people have paid more and more attentions on the researches on wind energy technologies, especially on improving the performance of the wind turbine which is the principal equipment for power generation. Although the horizontal axis wind turbine is popular for large scale power generation now, the vertical axis wind turbine as another important kind of wind turbine is a good choice for small scale power generation [1, 2]. Among them, the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine (SB-VAWT) has received more and more attentions recently for its special advantages, such as simple design, low cost and good maintenance [3, 4]. Many researchers have investigated this kind of wind turbine, especially in Canada and Japan [5, 6]. The authors have also carried out some researches on it [7-9]. In this study, the solidity which is one of the most important factors which affects the performance of the SB-VAWT was researched by numerical computations in a CFD package based on the 2 dimensions incompressible steady flow. Two kinds of solidity were decided, and for each one, three patterns were selected by changing the blade chord and number. Flow fields around the SB-VAWT were obtained, and the torque and power coefficients were also calculated. According to the

25.48% 12.74% TABLE II.

0.05(m) 0.1(m)
SIMULATION PATTERNS

2 4

Aerofoil NACA0012 NACA0018

C2N2

C2N1

C1N2

Scientific Research Fund of Heilongjiang Provincial Education Department (No.:1153h01); Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars

978-1-4244-4813-5/10/$25.00 2010 IEEE

To get the solutions of the equations, turbulence model was used as the turbulence model. Turbulent kinetic energy k (m2/s3) and turbulent energy dissipation rate , were inducted. Therefore, the constraint equations were expressed as follows:
( k ) ( ku j ) t + = + t x j x j k
( ) ( u j ) + = t x j x j t +

k . (4) + ( Pk ) x j

. (5) + ( C1 Pk C2 ) x j k

Where Pk is the turbulent kinetic energy generated item, and it is defined as:
Pk =

t ui u j ui . + x j xi x j

(6)

III.
Figure 1. Flow field aera for computation.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSTIONS

A. Static Performance Analysis The static torque coefficients (Cts) of the six simulation patterns at different azimuth angles were shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. The static torque coefficient was defined as below:

Cts =

Ts . 1 2 ARU 2

(7)

Where Ts is static torque (N m), is air density (kg/m3), A is wind turbine swept area (m2), and U is wind speed (m/s).

Figure 2. The mesh grids around blade

B. Mathematical Model The computation was based on 2 dimensions incompressible steady flow. Numerical computations were carried out by the finite volume method with unstructured grid method. According to the conditions in the computation, the continuity equation and momentum equation were shown as below:

Figure 3. Static torque coefficients of the model with NACA0012 aerofoil.

( u j ) + = 0. t x j

(2)

( ui ) ( ui u j ) + t x j

u u e i + j x j xi P = + Si . x j xi

(3)

Where is fluid density (kg/m3), the xj is coordinate component, uiuj is the average relative velocity components, e is the significant viscosity coefficient, P is the pressure (Pa), Si is the generated item.

Figure 4. Static torque coefficients of the model with NACA0018 aerofoil.

Cp =

P . 1 3 AU 2

(9)

R
U

(10)

Where T is torque (N m), P is power (W) and is the angular velocity of the blade.

Figure 5. Average static torque coefficients of each pattern

According to Fig. 3, different solidities, blade numbers and chords affect the Cts for the model with NACA0012 aerofoil greatly. The pattern 1 with a smaller solidity has a large torque coefficient in its first half period. However in its second half period there are very small Cts and even minus value which mean that the rotational direction will change, which makes the rotor can not start rotation. For the pattern 3 with the same solidity as the pattern 1, the period is 90 degrees for it has 4 blades. The Cts in one period has no minus value and the torque variation becomes much smaller. Based on the results above, it can conclude that even for the SB-VAWT with same solidity, the difference of blade number and chord will affect the static torque performance. For the pattern 2 with lager solidity, the Cts are all plus value and much larger than that of the pattern 3 in the whole period. It suggests that the increase of blade chord can increase the static torque coefficient in some degree. Although the values of Cts from 0 deg to 90 deg are smaller than that of the pattern 1, the Cts for pattern 3 are absolutely larger than pattern 1 during its second half period. According to Fig.4, the solidity effects on the model with NACA0018 aerofoil are similar to the situation of NACA0012. Furthermore, it can be easily observed that the performance of the model with NACA0018 aerofoil is much better than that of aerofoil NACA0012. Figure 5 shows the average static torque coefficients in one period of each pattern. It can be easily seen that the model with larger solidity for both the condition of NACA0012 and NACA0018 has larger value. The average static torque performance of the model with NACA0018 aerofoil is much better than the case of NACA0012. Therefore, it can say that the SB-VAWT with thicker aerofoil may have better static torque performance. B. Dynamic Performance Analysis The torque coefficient (CT) and power coefficient (CP) under dynamic condition and the tip speed ratio () are expressed as follows

Figure 6. Torque coefficients and power coefficients

Figure 6 shows the CT and CP of the model with NACA0012 aerofoil under the rotational condition at different tip speed ratios. It can be seen that the characteristics of CT and CP are similar, only CP is discussed here for the power performance is the most important in rotational condition. Unlike the results of static performance, the maximum CP of pattern 3 is larger than the maximum values of CP for pattern 1 and 3 with the same smaller solidity. It can conclude that too large solidity will decrease the power coefficient of the SB-VAWT. Furthermore, the maximum power coefficients for pattern 1 and 3 with the same smaller solidity occurs both at about =3. On the contrary, for pattern 2 with the larger solidity it occurs at about =2. This result means that the model with lager solidity can reach maximum torque and power coefficient at lower tip speed ratio. However, the power coefficient of the pattern 2 decreases sharply after it reaches the maximum power coefficient. The power coefficient for pattern 1 and 3 decreases smoothly after it reaches the maximum power coefficient. It means larger solidity can help the rotation speed control of the SB-VAWT when the wind speed is too fast for the wind turbine, which can keep the wind turbine in safe. The flow fields around and in the model with different solidity at different tip speed ratio are shown in from Fig. 7 to Fig. 10. For pattern 2 (see Fig.7 and Fig.8), with the increasing of tip speed, the decreasing of wind speed passing through the interior of the model becomes more and more serious. Figure 9 and Fig.10 show the flow filed comparisons of the solidity effects at the same tip speed ratio. It can be seen that the flow is difficult to pass through the interior of the model with larger solidity comparing with the model with smaller solidity. It is the reason that affects the power performance of the model with large solidity. According to these results, the solidity is an important factor when the wind turbine works.

Ct =

T 1 ARU 2 2

(8)

IV.

CONCLUSIONS

The static and dynamic performance effects of solidity on the straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine were carried out by numerical computation. According to the results under the condition in this study, it can be summarized as follows: For the static torque performance, with the increasing of solidity the average static torque coefficient in one period of the SB-VAWT increase, which is benefit to improving the starting performance. For the rotational condition, the SB-VAWT with larger solidity achieves maximum power at lower tip speed ratio. However, too large solidity will decrease the power coefficient. Furthermore, even for the same solidity the different combination of blade number and chord affects the power performance of the SB-VAWT greatly. The increasing of the solidity and tip speed ration affects the flow fields round and in the SB-VAWT and makes the decreasing of wind speed passing through the interior of the SB-VAWT greatly, which is the main reason affecting its power performance. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This study was Sponsored by Scientific Research Fund of Heilongjiang Provincial Education Department (No.:1153h01), and also supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars. The authors would like to thank to their supports.
Figure 8. The flow field of pattern 2 at =3 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Figure 7. The flow field of pattern 2 at =1

REFERENCES
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[6]

Figure 9. The flow field of pattern 2 at =2

[7]

[8]

[9]

Figure 10. The flow field of pattern 3 at =2

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