CHAPTER 3

THEORY OF VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE BLADES

3.1. Horizontal Axis and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

The HAWT is the most common turbine configuration. The propellers and turbine
mechanisms are mounted high above the ground on a huge pedestal. It is a matter of taste
as to whether they enhance the landscape. However, there is no denying that the height at
which their mechanisms are located is a disadvantage when servicing is required. Also,
they require a mechanical yaw system to orient them such that their horizontal axis is
perpendicular to and facing the wind. As potential power generation is related to the
swept area (diameter) of the rotor, more power requires a larger diameter. The blades
experience large thrust and torque forces, so size is limited by blade strength.
Several typical vertical-axis wind turbines are shown in Figure. The blades of the
vertical-axis wind turbines rotate with respect to their vertical axes that are perpendicular
to the ground. A significant advantage of vertical-axis wind turbine is that the turbine can
accept wind from any direction and thus no yaw control is needed. Since the wind
generator, gearbox, and other main turbine components can be set up on the ground, it
greatly simplifies the wind tower design and construction, and consequently reduces the
turbine cost. However, the vertical-axis wind turbines must use an external energy source
to rotate the blades during initialization. Because the axis of the wind turbine is supported
only on one end at the ground, its maximum practical height is thus limited. Due to the
lower wind power efficiency, vertical-axis wind turbines today make up only a small
percentage of wind turbines.
3.2. Vertical axis wind turbines – VAWTs
Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) come in a wide and interesting variety of
physical configurations and they involve a range of complex aerodynamic characteristics.
Not only were VAWTs the first wind turbines to be developed but they have also been
built and operated at a scale matching some of the biggest wind turbines ever made.
VAWTs in principle can attain coefficients of performance, Cp max, that are comparable
to those for horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs) and they have several potentially
significant advantages over the HAWTs.
These advantages include the fact that VAWTs are cross-flow devices and therefore
accept wind from any direction. Thus, in principle, they do not need a yaw mechanism to
ensure that they are aligned to the wind as is the case with all horizontal axis machines.
Another key advantage is that the mechanical load may be connected directly to the
VAWT rotor shaft and located at ground level. This removes the need for a substantial
tower to support the weight of equipment such as the gearbox, generator and yaw
mechanism. There is also no need for slip rings or flexible cables to connect the generator
to the load, which can be an important point for small-scale turbines.
From the 1970s to the 1990s a number of research groups and companies developed and
built hundreds of VAWTs and a great deal has been learnt from that experience. But
despite the inherent advantages of VAWTs they have fallen significantly behind HAWTs
in recent years in terms of technical development and in the size and number of units
manufactured. This has occurred for a number of reasons, not least because of some
inherent disadvantages of VAWTs.
As the VAWT blades rotate about the main rotor shaft the velocity of the air relative to
the blade is constantly changing in respect of both magnitude and direction. In addition,
each blade will interact with the wakes of other blades, and possibly its own wake, when
it passes through the downstream half of its path about the turbine axis. Both these effects
result in fluctuating aerodynamic forces on the blades, which in turn lead to a potentially
significant fatigue issue for the design of the blades and overall turbine structure. The
fluctuating blade loads also lead to a varying torque transferred to the mechanical load.
Many designs of VAWTs produce very low torque when they are stationary and may
produce negative torque at low tip speed ratios, so they must be powered up to a speed at
which the aerodynamic torque is sufficient to accelerate the rotor to normal operational
speeds. A further disadvantage is that parasitic drag losses may be high for a given
VAWT design. This situation can arise when the VAWT blades need to be mounted on
structures (spars, beams, cables, etc.) that rotate with the blades or are located upstream
of the blades. The drag forces on these passive components can lead to significant
parasitic losses in respect to rotor torque and power output. This has inhibited the
successful development of a number of VAWT designs .
Nevertheless there continues to be widespread interest in VAWTs as a means of
generating electrical and mechanical energy from the wind. Novel VAWT turbine
designs appear relatively frequently at the time of writing and a number of small
companies appear to be undertaking development of VAWTs for small-scale application,
particularly in respect to domestic dwellings.

3.3. VAWT types

A wide variety of VAWTs have been proposed over the past few decades and a
number of excellent bibliographies on VAWTs have been published that summarize
research and development of these devices, including the survey by Abramovich
(Abramovic, 1987). Some of the more important types of rotor design are highlighted in
the following sections.

3.3.1 Savonius turbines

The Savonius turbine has been popular with both professional and amateur wind
turbine developers over the years, not least because of its simple and robust construction.
Many variations of the Savonius rotor have been developed and tested. However, because
of the inherently high solidity and hence high mass of the Savonius turbine it has not
been used for large-scale electricity production.
The Savonius rotor is primarily a drag device with some inherent augmentation of the
rotor performance available due to the air flow across each vane and mutual coupling of
the two halves of the rotor. Like all drag machines it has a low operating tip speed ratio.
This makes it less suitable for electricity generation than devices with higher tip speeds,
since a high shaft speed is generally preferred to minimize the step-up ratio requirement
of the gearbox coupling a rotor to a conventional electrical generator.

3.3.2 Darrieus turbines

In 1931 the invention by Darrieus (Darrieus, 1931)of his rotor with a high tip
speed ratio opened up new opportunities for VAWTs in regards to electricity generation.
The fundamental step forward made by Darrieus was to provide a means of raising the
velocity of the VAWT blades significantly above the freestream wind velocity so that lift
forces could be used to significantly improve the coefficient of performance of VAWTs
over previous designs based primarily on drag. Darrieus also foresaw a number of
embodiments of his fundamental idea that would be trialed at large scale many decades
later. These included use of both curved-blade shown in figure 1.2 and straight blade
versions of his rotor. He also proposed options for active control of the pitch of the blades
relative to the rotor as a whole, so as to optimize the angle of attack of the wind on each
blade throughout its travel around the rotor circumference.
3.3.3 Straight-blade VAWTs
The name Darrieus is usually associated with the curved-blade version of
Darrieus’ patent. However, a great deal of work over the past three decades has gone into
the development and analysis of the straightblade version of his original invention, which
is sometimes known as the H-VAWT from the shape of the blades and supporting spars.

3.4. Design of wind turbine blades

There were two scopes to followed achieving our objectives:
Performance analysis: To study the different parameters the effect the performance.
Parametric studies were performed using different methods, were we get the overall
dimensions and different characteristics of the turbine.
Design analysis: To select the materials which the turbine is made of. Stress
analysis and vibration analysis were performed to ensure safe operation of the turbine
under extreme conditions.

3.5 VAWT design parameters

The wind turbine parameters considered in design process are:
1.Turbine swept area
2.Tip speed ratio
3.Number of blades
4.Turbine aspect ratio
5.Turbine solidity
 6.Airfoil type
7.Pitch angle
8.Mass moment of inertia

3.5.1 Turbine swept area

The swept area is the section of air that encloses the turbine in its movement, the
shape of the swept area depends on the rotor configuration, this way the swept area of
an HAWT is circular shaped while for a straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine the
swept area has a rectangular shape and is calculated using:
𝐴 = 2𝑅𝐻 (3.1)
Where,
𝐴= swept area (m2 ¿
𝑅= rotor radius (m)
𝐻 = blade length (m)
Therefore, the swept area limits the volume of air passing by the turbine. The rotor
converts the energy contained in the wind in rotational movement so as bigger the area,
bigger power output in the same wind conditions.

3.5.2 Tip speed ratio

The tip speed ratio is an extremely important factor in wind turbine design, which
is defined as the ratio of the tangential speed at the blade tip to the actual wind speed. If
the blade angular speed ω is too small, most of the wind may pass undisturbed though the
blade swept area making little useful work on the blades. On the contrary, if ω is too
large, the fast-rotating blades may block the wind flow reducing the power extraction.
Each rotor design has an optimal tip speed ratio at which the maximum power extraction
is achieved (Castillo, 2011)
Where,
ωR
𝑇𝑆𝑅 = (3.2)
u∞
ꙍ= angular speed of blades (m)
R= radius of the hub (m)
3.5.3 Number of blades
The number of blades has a direct effect in the smoothness of rotor operation as
they can compensate cycled aerodynamic loads. For even number of blades as two blades
the fluctuation in rotor torque was higher than odd number of blades as three blades
turbine. Such behavior could represent a great advantage for three-bladed small VAWT
architectures, for which the increased manufacturer and installation costs are not as
important as for large rotors (Battisti L,2016).

3.5.4 Turbine aspect ratio

The ratio between blade height to rotor radius (aspect ratio) is play an important
role in design process of VAWT, Basically high aspect ratio means that we get high
rotational speed than rotor torque for the same power and vice versa. Aspect ratio
influences the Reynolds number and as a consequence the power coefficient.

3.5.5 Turbine solidity

The solidity σ is defined as the ratio between the total blade area and the
projected turbine area (Tullis, 2008). It is an important non-dimensional parameter which
affects self-starting capabilities and for straight bladed VAWTs is calculated with;
B∗c
𝜎=
R
Where, (3.3)
𝜎=solidity (m)
B= number of blades (number)
c = blade chord (number)
R= radius (m)
hence, Solidity determines when the assumptions of the momentum models are
applicable, and only when using high σ ≥ 0.4 a self-starting turbine is achieved.

3.5.6 Airfoil type

 Airfoil proper selection for your VAWT is important in many ways. The airfoil
should be selected based on many factors:
1. Chambered or symmetrical
2. Lift/drag ratio
3. Aerodynamic performance to increase output power
4. Airfoil thickness

3.5.7 Pitch angle

It was clearly seen that proper airfoil selection make great contributions to the
improvement of aerodynamic performance, but it was difficult to give consideration to
self-staring capability, higher power coefficient and wider operational region.

3.5.8 Mass moment of inertia

The biggish moment of inertia is disadvantage of VAWT’s start, effecting
reasonable design (rate of high and radius) and result of brake .Therefore , it is necessary
that study the influence of moment of inertia of VAWT. The VAWT of the lesser
moment of inertia has good start performance, but the steady of performance is bad with
wind velocity increased; it’s because that the process is unsteady when wind turbine is
rotated, that is to say, the angular velocity is different at the different azimuth angle, the
angular velocity has obvious wave with azimuth angle’s difference for the lesser moment
of inertia’s wind turbine.
Angular acceleration = Aerodynamic moment / Mass moment of inertia (3.4)

3.6. Theoretical Maximum Efficiency

High rotor efficiency is desirable for increased wind energy extraction and should
be maximized within the limits of affordable production. Energy (P) carried by moving
air is expressed as a sum of its kinetic energy.
1
P= ρ AV 3
2
Where,ρ = Air Density
A = Swept area
 V = Air Velocity
A physical limit exists to the quantity of energy that can be extracted, which is
independent of design. The energy is maintained in a flow process through the reduction
of kinetic energy and subsequent velocity of the wind. The magnitude of energy
harnessed is a function of the reduction in air speed over the turbine. 100% extraction
would imply zero final velocity and therefore zero flow. The zero-flow scenario cannot
be achieved hence all the winds kinetic energy may not be utilized. This principle is
widely accepted and indicates that wind turbine efficiency cannot exceed 59.3%. This
parameter is commonly known as the power coefficient C P, where max C P= 0.593
referred to as the Betz limit. The Betz theory assumes constant linear velocity. Therefore,
any rotational forces such as weak rotation, turbulence caused by drag or vortex shedding
will further reduce the maximum efficiency. Efficiency losses are generally reduced by:
 Avoiding low tip speed ratios which increase weak rotation
 Selecting aerofoils which have a high life to drag ratio
 Specialized tip geometries

3.7. Aerodynamics of Straight Blade Darrieus Type VAWT

As the VAWT have a rotational axis perpendicular to the oncoming airflow, the
aerodynamics involved are more complicated than of the more conventional HAWT. The
main disadvantages of VAWT are the high local angles of attack involved and the wake
coming from the blades in the upwind part and from the axis.
Compared to Savonius rotor, Darrieus rotor usually works at relatively high tip speed
ratio which makes it attractive for wind electric generators. However, they are not self-
starting and require external ‘excitation’ to cut-in. If the straight blade Darrieus type
VAWT is represented in a two dimensional way the aerodynamic characteristics are more
obvious.
Fig- VAWT flow velocities and blade stream