J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn.

159 (2016) 9–18

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Wind Engineering

and Industrial Aerodynamics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indaer

Analysis and optimal design of wind boosters for Vertical Axis Wind
Turbines at low wind speed
crossmark
⁎
Natapol Korprasertsak, Thananchai Leephakpreeda
School of Manufacturing Systems and Mechanical Engineering, Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, P.O. Box 22,
Thammasat Rangsit Post Office, Pathum Thani 12121, Thailand

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) are usually chosen for urban areas where local average wind speed is low.
Wind booster However, standalone VAWTs are unable to generate mechanical power satisfactorily for best practice. This
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine study presents analysis and optimal design of airflow controlling equipment for a VAWT, which is called a wind
Low wind speed booster. The wind booster is proposed to be implemented with a VAWT in order to not only harvest energy with
Computational fluid dynamics
low availability at low wind speed, but also enhance performance of the VAWT at high wind speed. Particularly,
Optimization
the wind booster comprises a number of guide vanes, which are mounted around a VAWT. The guide vanes
direct wind to impact VAWT blades at effective angles while passages between each guide vane are arranged to
accelerate wind. The guiding and throttling effects of the wind booster are able to increase angular speed of a
VAWT, leading to an increase in mechanical power of the VAWT. Optimal solutions of number, shape, and
leading angle of guide vanes are determined by maximizing the coefficient of power. The proposed methodology
can be generalized to determine optimal wind boosters for other types and dimensions of turbines from this
study.

1. Introduction
In many accessible areas, such as the central region of Thailand, the
average wind speed is relatively low, approximately 2–4 m/s at a height
of 40 m, while wind direction changes over time due to many high-rises
and obstacles (Quan and Leephakpreeda, 2015). Vertical Axis Wind
Turbines (VAWTs) are preferable in terms of compactness and
economic feasibility to operate at low wind speed in any wind direction.
However, standalone VAWTs do not yield the most effective power
conversion due to limitations of harvesting wind energy with low
availability at low speed. In turn, various designs and techniques have
been proposed to improve the energy conversion of VAWTs. For
example, Dabiri (2011) enhanced power density via counter-rotating
VAWT arrays while Shaheen et al. (2015) arranged diverse VAWT
clusters with different numbers and patterns. In (Kim and Cheong,
2015), the aero-acoustics technique is indirectly utilized to lower
energy loss due to noise in a Savonius VAWT. Performance of
mechanical components was experimentally investigated for strength-
ening power generation (Hossain et al. 2007). It was reported that a
twisted bamboo rotor had high potential compared to conventional
blades (Saha, 2009). A magnetic levitation bearing system was used in
successfully reducing vibration and countering torque (Kumbernuss
et al., 2012). Butbul et al. (2015) developed novel flexible blades for
VAWTs according to wind conditions. Additionally, CFD analysis is
effectively applied to investigate mechanical performance of VAWTs
(Mohamed et al. 2015, Wekesa et al. 2015; Lee and Lim, 2015). In
designs, Takao et al. (2009) developed a directed guide vane row so as
to capture a wind stream in a single direction while Chong et al. (2012)
developed omnidirectional guide vanes. Pope et al. (2010) used
numerical analysis to determine the operating angles of stator vanes
for a VAWT. Ohya and Karasudani (2010) developed a shrouded
horizontal axis wind turbine system called “Wind-lens turbine”. Wind
can be speeded up by a shaped passage. Although those devices can
capture wind, arrangements of guide vanes are not designed for best
practice in those studies.
In this work, a wind booster is proposed for CFD-based analysis and
optimization in order to improve mechanical power of VAWTs. With
guide vanes, the wind booster can regulate flow direction and accel-
erate wind from any direction so as to yield the most effective impacts
on VAWT blades. Optimal design of the wind booster leads to an
increase in mechanical power, which is higher than standalone VAWTs.

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: thanan@siit.tu.ac.th (T. Leephakpreeda).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jweia.2016.10.007
Received 27 January 2016; Received in revised form 17 September 2016; Accepted 14 October 2016
0167-6105/ © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda
Nomenclature
Symbol Definition
A Swept area (m2)
CP Coefficient of power
ĈP Peak value of coefficient of power
f Objective function
n Number of design variables
P Wind power (W)
PT Power output of vertical axis wind turbine (W)
r Radius of vertical axis wind turbine (m)
T Torque of vertical axis wind turbine (Nm)
2. Methodology
In this section, a power analysis of a VAWT is presented to describe
efficiency of a VAWT, which is defined as the coefficient of power, with/
without a wind booster. Conceptually, the coefficient of power is an
inherent characteristic of a given VAWT. It represents the ratio of
partial amount of wind power captured by the VAWT to total amount of
wind power when wind blows through. Therefore, it can be altered after
installing a wind booster where optimal choices of the wind booster can
yield a maximal coefficient of power.
2.1. Power analysis of VAWT
To understand the proposed methodology, CFD analysis of a VAWT
coupled with a specially-designed wind booster are performed, in order
to analyze effects on air streams that lead to an increase in the overall
angular speed of a VAWT at low wind speed conditions of 1–8 m/s. The
concept for designing a wind booster is not only to guide wind to the
blades of a VAWT, but also increase wind speed, before engaging the
VAWT. The guide vanes with curve-sided triangle shape, as shown in
Fig. 1, are designed to direct air flow to blades of a Savonius VAWT,
which has a lower cut-in wind speed than a Darrieus VAWT. The
proposed methodology can be generalized in determining optimal wind
boosters for other types of VAWTs at low wind speed. The guide vanes
are arranged to throttle air flow for increasing wind speed. Since wind
can blow in all 360 degrees of a VAWT, the blades of guide vanes are
mounted around the VAWT. The upper and lower rings are used to fix
all the guide vanes at certain positions around the VAWT.
Fig. 2 shows the schematic diagram of air flowing through the
VAWT equipped with the wind booster. The air at region A flows along
a positive X axis through the wind booster. The guide vanes lead the
wind to the VAWT blades at region B. The VAWT blades are effectively
pushed by the wind in this region. Also, the guide vanes prevent the
wind from countering rotation of the VAWT at region C. The passage
between the two guide vanes throttles the wind in order to increase the
wind speed. The wind speed at region B is higher than region A.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of VAWT and wind booster.
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J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18
v Wind speed (m/s)
x Design variable
α Leading angle of guide vane (degree)
β Number of guide vanes
δ Step length
ε Acceptable tolerance
λ Tip speed ratio
ω Angular speed (rad/s)
ρ Air density (kg/m3)
VAWT Vertical axis wind turbine
Actually, there is another conventional method, which is able to
increase power output of a VAWT by enlarging the size of a turbine.
However, the reasons to increase power output by boosting wind speed
are:
1) Wind power is proportional to wind speed raised to the three
power; therefore, increasing wind speed can greatly multiply the
power output of a VAWT compared with an increase in size of the
VAWT. The wind power can be expressed as (Quan and
Leephakpreeda, 2015):
1
P= ρAv 3
2 (1)
2) This approach does not require a large wind turbine, which means
savings in both cost for materials and space for installation. Also, it
may be workable at low wind speed due to easy start-up from
minimal inertia.
Generally, the power output of the VAWT is determined as:
PT = Tω (2)
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air, which is partially
recovered, by the VAWT. In other words, the power output of the
VAWT cannot be entirely recovered for mechanical power. The
coefficient of power is known as the fraction of the power output
extracted from the power in the wind by the VAWT. In the theory of
Betz, the coefficient of power is always not greater than 16/27 (0.59)
(Abea et al. 2005). This inherent characteristic of a given VAWT can be
used as efficiency of the VAWT. The coefficient of power is defined as
(Kim and Gharib, 2013):
PT
CP =
P (3)
In wind power analysis, the coefficient of power is usually presented
as a function of the tip speed ratio. The tip speed ratio is the ratio of the
speed of the ending tip of the VAWT blade to the wind speed. It can be
written as:
N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Fig. 2. Wind flowing through VAWT with the wind booster.

Fig. 3. Typical plots of coefficient of power against tip speed ratio for a given VAWT.

rω Constraints: x ∈ [ α β ]T ; α ∈ [0, 90]; β > 0

λ=
v (4)

Fig. 3 shows graphical examples of the coefficient of power against
the tip speed ratio. It can be observed that the curve of the coefficient of
power in the case of incorporating a wind booster is higher than the
curve in the case of no wind booster since the wind is expected to blow
at higher speed. Additionally, the efficiency of the VAWT can be
improved by maximizing the value of the coefficient of power. This
enhancement can be done with the selection of best components of the
wind booster from available alternatives such as number, shape, and
leading angle of the guide vanes in Section 2.2.
2.2. Optimization of wind booster
As mentioned in Section 2.1, number, shape, and leading angle of
the guide vanes are regarded as design variables in optimization. It can
be seen that the shape of the guide vane is a qualitative variable, which
cannot be numerically determined for optimal results. Hence, the
potential shapes are proposed in structures of curved side triangle,
straight side triangle, and straight line, as shown in Fig. 4(a), (b), and
(c), respectively, as optimization cases.
The leading angle of the guide vane α and number of guide vanes β
can be considered quantitative variables. The number of guide vanes is
set to be an integer greater than 0. The leading angle of a guide vane is
defined in real values between 0° and 90°, as shown in Fig. 5.
In the optimization of the wind booster, the aim is to maximize the
peak value of the coefficient of power ĈP . The objective function f with
the design variables x and the constraint for the optimization are
defined as:
Maximize CˆP = f (x )
An alternating direction technique is effectively implemented with
exploratory and pattern searches for optimal solutions by performing
CFD experiments (Leephakpreeda, 2000). This does not require the
gradient of the objective function, but needs the value of the objective
function in searching. For given values of design variables, the peak
value of the coefficient of power is determined for each evaluation of
the objective function. This is based on that any point in the n-
dimensional search space can be reached from any starting point by
linking along the axis by n times. This technique relies on utilizing 2
types of moving, which are exploratory moving and pattern moving, to
eventually reach the optimum point. An exploratory move is movement
that either optimization variable α or β is varied while for the pattern
move, both optimization variables α and β are varied, as illustrated in
Fig. 6.
The algorithm of the alternating direction technique for finding a
maximum point is explained in steps as follows:
Step 1. Define x (k =0) as the estimated maximum point at i = 1, i is
the order index of design variables, andk is the iteration index.
Step2. Find the maximum value of f (x (k ) ), f (x (k ) − δe) and
f (x (k ) + δe) where e = [01 0 2 ⋯ 1i ⋯ 0n ]T , and n is the total dimen-
sion of design variables.
Step 3. Define k = k + 1 and x (k )is the maximum point in step 2.
Step 4. If i ≠ n , define i = i + 1 and go to step 2, or else define i = 1
and go to step 5 (exploratory move).
Step 5. If x (k ) ≠ x (k −1) go to step 7 or else go to step 6.
Step 6. If δ < ε , stop iteration or else reduce δ and go to step 2.
Step 7. Define k = k + 1 and x (k ) = 2x (k −1) − x (k −3) (pattern move).
Step 8. If f (x (k ) ) > f (x (k −1) ), go to step 7, or else define x (k ) = x (k −1)
and go to step 2.

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N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Fig. 4. Shapes of guide vanes: (a) curved side triangle, (b) straight side triangle, and (c) straight line.

Fig. 5. Leading angle of guide vane.

Fig. 6. Alternating direction technique in CFD experiments.

3. Results and discussion
The experiments of VAWT rotations are performed with CFD-based
simulations by utilizing XFlow™ CFD software. For CFD analysis, a
Savonius VAWT and a preliminary design of wind booster are
investigated for mechanical behavior (Korprasertsak et al. 2014 and
Korprasertsak and Leephakpreeda, 2015). The dimensions of the
VAWT and the designed wind booster are shown in Fig. 7. The eight
guide vanes are subjectively set with a leading angle of 60° from
experience. The material for modeling the VAWT is proposed to be a
fiber plastic of 1000 kg/m3. The VAWT is mounted at the middle of the
wind booster. Rotations of the VAWT are taken into account under
external flow conditions. It rotates about the vertical axis while the
wind booster is fixed in position. The conditions of the external flow
through the VAWT in the CFD analysis are set up as listed in Table 1.
In CFD analysis, the scheme of the flow simulation is based on the
lattice Boltzmann method, which is evolved from the lattice gas
automata where physical terms are determined by the interaction of
particles in a discrete lattice. The external flow model is assumed to be
isothermal and Newtonian. The domain type is set to be a virtual wind
tunnel with domain size of 210,000 nodes. The turbulence model of
Wall-Adapting Local-Eddy is applied so as to yields an acceptable flow
simulation both near to and far from a wall.
To investigate how the wind booster is influenced by the change of
wind stream, which is described by a change in wind speed and wind
direction, the standalone VAWT and the VAWT equipped with the wind
booster are tested. In simulations, the wind speed is varied from 1 m/s
to 8 m/s for low wind speed conditions. The VAWT turns in a clockwise

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N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Fig. 7. Dimensions of VAWT and wind booster (mm).

Table 1
Parameter setup for CFD analysis.

Parameters Values

Kernel 3D
Flow model Single phase external
Thermal model Isothermal
Domain type Virtual wind tunnel
Turbulence model Wall-Adapting Local-Eddy (WALE)
Fluid Type Air
Viscosity model Newtonian
Total number of element 210,000

Fig. 8. CFD simulation of VAWT without wind booster.

Fig. 9. CFD simulation of VAWT with wind booster.

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N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Table 2
Angular Speeds of VAWT at various wind speeds.

Wind Speed (m/s) Angular Speed (RPM) Increment (%)

Without Booster With Booster

1 19.6 29.7 50.97

2 39.2 59.6 52.07
3 59.5 90.7 52.24
4 78.5 120.1 52.86
5 98.4 151.2 53.64
6 118.0 180.4 52.91
7 138.6 210.9 52.13
8 158.6 240.2 51.48

Fig. 10. Plots of VAWT angular speed against wind speed.

Fig. 11. VAWT exerted by external torques.

Fig. 12. Plots of torques against VAWT angular speeds without wind booster.

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N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Fig. 13. Plots of torques against VAWT angular speeds with wind booster.

Fig. 14. Plots of mechanical powers against VAWT angular speeds without wind booster.

Fig. 15. Plots of mechanical powers against VAWT angular speeds with wind booster.

direction of the vertical axis under frictionless rotation. Fig. 8 and
Fig. 9 show examples of CFD simulations for a given time on steady
state rotations of the standalone VAWT, and the VAWT with the wind
booster, respectively. Wind of 3 m/s is set to flow from the left side to
the right side. The gray vectors represent the velocity of wind where the
arrow heads indicate the direction of wind, and the gray color
represents the magnitude of the wind. It can be observed that the
VAWT turns in a clockwise direction at a given speed.
Under no-load conditions, the simulated results on angular speed of
the VAWT are reported in Table 2. The wind booster is capable of
increasing angular speeds of the VAWT by greater than 50% of the
angular speeds of the VAWT without the wind booster at various wind
speeds. It can be observed that the increment in the VAWT's angular
speed is boosted from effects of throttling and guiding from the
proposed booster.
It should be remarked that the performance of rotation reaches a
peak increment of 53.64% around a wind speed of 5 m/s. The
reduction in rotation at higher wind speed is resulted from the rapidly
rotating blades of the VAWT appearing as a solid wall.
Plots of the angular speeds of the VAWT are graphically shown in
Fig. 10. The curve of the VAWT speed with the wind booster is
significantly higher than the curve of the VAWT speed without the wind
booster. This increment in angular speed of the VAWT results in a great
improvement of mechanical power.
To investigate the mechanical performance of the VAWT under
loading conditions, an external torque is applied to the shaft of the
VAWT in a counter clockwise direction in CFD analysis, as shown in
Fig. 11. In Fig. 12 and Fig. 13, it can be observed that the torque is
inversely proportional to the angular speed of the VAWT without and
with the wind booster, respectively. However, the torque of the VAWT
with the wind booster is higher than the VAWT without the wind
booster, comparatively. It can be interpreted that the VAWT with the
wind booster is capable of generating higher mechanical power, as
shown in Fig. 14 and Fig. 15. Obviously, the peak value of mechanical
power of the VAWT with the wind booster has increased. Also, the
operating range of the angular speed of the VAWT is significantly
expanded, compared with the VAWT without the wind booster.
Plots of the coefficient of power versus tip speed ratio are
graphically shown in Fig. 16. For a given wind speed, the coefficient
of power is directly proportional to a multiplication between torque
and angular speed. As shown in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13, the torque is low at
high angular speed, and vice versa. Consequently, this result causes low
values of the coefficient of power at high and low angular speed. The
curve of the coefficient of power with the wind booster is significantly
higher than the curve of the coefficient of power without the wind
booster. Those results mean that the wind booster improves the

15
N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda
Fig. 16. Plots of power coefficient against VAWT tip speed ratio.
Table 3
Optimization for curved side triangle shape of guide vanes.
Iteration Number
1 6
2 5
3 7
4 7
5 7
6 8
7 9
… …
… …
… …
Fig. 17. Development of peak values of coefficient of power in each iteration.
efficiency of the VAWT. It can be observed that the characteristic curve
is similar, whereas the peak value of the coefficient of power is notably
higher. The operating range of the tip speed ratio of the VAWT is
significantly larger. However, the wind booster coefficient of power can
be increased by selecting optimal design variables: number, shape, and
leading angle of the guide vane.
In the optimization of the wind booster, the aim is to maximize the
peak value of the coefficient of power, which represents the highest
ability to convert wind power into mechanical power for VAWTs. It
should be noted that both the overall value of the coefficient of power
and the operating range of the tip speed ratio increase as the peak value
of the coefficient of power increases. For each shape, the initial number
and the leading angle are set to 6° and 40°, respectively. The initial
magnitudes of steps for number and leading angle of the guide vane are
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J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18
Leading angle (O) ĈP (%)
40 26.3
40 11.9
40 30.6
35 26.6
45 30.7
50 44.4
60 26.1
… …
… …
… …
1 and 5 degrees, respectively. However, the magnitude of steps for
number of guide vanes remains constant for all iterations while the
leading angle of the guide vane decreases as the optimal solution is
approached. An example of the first seven results of the optimization
for curved-side-triangle guide vane is listed in Table 3. Fig. 17 shows
the development of the peak values of the coefficient of power for three
shapes of the guide vane in each iteration of the proposed technique.
The conclusions of optimal design variables are reported in Table 4.
The straight line shape yields the maximum peak value of the
coefficient of power at 55.6% with 6 guide vanes and a leading angle
of 76.1°. This optimal design with 6 guide vanes and a leading angle of
76.1° increases the larger width of the passages to capture the incoming
wind more than the original design with 8 guide vane and a leading
angle of 60°, as illustrated in Fig. 7. In practice, a guide vane with
N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 159 (2016) 9–18

Table 4
Optimal design variables for the three different shapes of guide vanes.

Shape of guide vanes Number Leading angle (deg) ĈP (%)

Curved side triangle 8 55 48.0

Straight side triangle 8 54.6 51.4
Straight line 6 76.1 55.6

Fig. 18. VAWT with optimal straight-line wind booster under real wind condition: (a) experimental setup, (b) CFD and experimental results, (c) linear regression of validation.

straight line type can be easily fabricated.
To investigate the practical usage of the wind booster, both CFD
analysis and a real experiment are performed by setting up the optimal
straight-line guide vanes under real wind conditions. In the experi-
ment, the VAWT and the wind booster are identically fabricated as
specifications of the VAWT model in CFD analysis, as illustrated in
Fig. 18(a). The measurements of wind speed are recorded on a six-floor
building at a height of 20 m from the ground by a three-cup
anemometer (Theodor FriedrichsTM 4034.0000bg). The angular speed
of the VAWT is measured by a digital tachometer (TestoTM 470). Wind
conditions present circumstances that wind blows in a local area at low
speed. Wind speed measurements are collected every second. The wind
speed fluctuates over time as shown in Fig. 18(b). It can be noticed that
the mean wind speed of 2 m/s is quite low. The 20-min wind data is
inputted to the CFD model. The simulated results (solid line) show that
the VAWT coupled with the wind booster performs greater mechanical
work in terms of the VAWT angular speeds than the standalone VAWT
(dotted line). In other words, the VAWT coupled with the wind booster
is capable of rotating with higher angular speed than the standalone
VAWT at all times. Additionally, measurement data of the angular
speeds, as indicated by cross symbols, agree with the simulated results.
As seen in Fig. 18(c), the coefficient of performance (R2) is 0.977
showing simulated results match measurements under real wind
conditions.

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N. Korprasertsak, T. Leephakpreeda
4. Conclusion
The study introduces an effective method to improve power
generation of VAWTs. A specially-designed wind booster is able to
improve mechanical performance of the VAWT at low speed wind
conditions. It can be observed in CFD analysis that the VAWT can
rotate faster when it is equipped with a wind booster. Also, it can
produce higher mechanical power. With optimization, the optimal
design of a wind booster is found. The VAWT with an optimal wind
booster is capable of producing mechanical power that is even higher
than the original one. The CFD model is confirmed by very good
agreement with experimental results of the optimal wind booster under
real wind conditions at low speed. The proposed methodology could be
adapted to any type of VAWT, which helps to overcome the limitations
of very low power at weak speed wind, particularly, in Thailand.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Bangchak Petroleum PCL for
financial support under “The Bangchak Graduate Scholarship”
Program BC-SIIT-G-S1Y13/012.
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