Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Vertical axis wind turbine performance enhancement using plasma actuators

David Greenblatt*, Magen Schulman, Amos Ben-Harav
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion e Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A small high-solidity vertical axis wind turbine, with dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators
Received 27 April 2011 installed on the blade leading-edges, was built and tested in a low-speed wind tunnel. The main
Accepted 24 June 2011 objectives were to assess turbine performance enhancements resulting from the control of dynamic flow
Available online 22 July 2011
separation and project the viability of up-scaling the turbine. The actuators employed were configured to
control separation only on the upstream half of the turbine azimuth. Turbine power was measured using
Keywords:
a specially designed dynamometer that allowed full characterization of its performance. A parametric
Vertical axis wind turbine
study showed that actuator duty cycle dependence observed previously on static airfoils was also
Dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator
Dynamic stall control
observed on the turbine. Optimum reduced frequencies, however, showed substantially different
dependence and this was traced to the importance of the plasma pulsation frequency relative to the
turbine rotational frequency. When considering overall performance improvements, increases in turbine
power of up to 38% were measured. Based on the data acquired, up-scaling the turbine by a factor of 5
and 10, the percentage of plasma power required to produce comparable improvements was conser-
vatively estimated at 3.3% and 1.7% respectively. Further work will address phase-locking the plasma
pulsation and turbine frequencies, assessing the performance benefits of downwind actuation,
employing combined upwind and downwind actuation and measuring the controlled flowfield using
particle image velocimetry.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
In recent years there has been a resurgence in vertical axis wind
turbine (VAWT) development for both urban-scale or off-grid
applications as well as off-shore alternatives to horizontal axis
wind turbines [1e7]. VAWTs have some advantages over horizontal
axis machines in that they are insensitive to wind direction, the
generator can be located closer to the ground and they produce
lower sound emissions due to lower blade speeds [8]. A major
problem associated with VAWTs is the phenomenon of dynamic
stall [9e11]; namely the boundary layer separates dynamically
from the turbine blades. Blade stall is a two-fold problem: on the
one hand it dramatically reduces turbine power through loss of lift
and increases in drag; on the other hand it produces large unsteady
loads that compromise the structural integrity and also impact on
the drive-train and generator selection [12,13].
In many cases the problem is compounded in the built envi-
ronment or on buildings [14] where VAWTs are often required to
operate at low rotational speeds and hence low blade speed to wind
speed ratios (l h uR/VN). This forces the turbine to operate in
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: davidg@technion.ac.il (D. Greenblatt).
a partially stalled state that is exacerbated at high wind speed when
the potential for power generation is maximized. Historically, the
approach to avoiding dynamic stall was to pitch the blades using
mechanical levers [15,16]. Attempts are also being made presently
to improve turbine performance using circulation control [17].
Additionally, recent investigations have focused on performance
measurements, flow visualization and PIV measurements of the
dynamic stall phenomenon [8]. However, no attempts have been
made to directly control turbine blade dynamic stall using active
flow control.
Although dynamic stall has not been controlled on VAWTs,
airfoil dynamic stall control under incompressible conditions has
been studied using a variety of techniques, including leading-edge
slats, deformable leading-edges, surface suction, slot blowing and
zero mass-flux blowing (see references in [18]). The introduction of
period perturbations, in the form of zero mass-flux blowing, is
a particularly attractive because it requires far less slot momentum
when compared to steady blowing. Significant increases in lift and
reductions in drag were observed when the reduced perturbation
frequency was in the range 0.6
Fþ
1.1 [19] and this renders it
potentially viable for application on VAWTs. However, the problem
is complex because stall occurs alternately on the inboard or the
outboard surfaces of the blades depending on whether they are
upwind or downwind. Hence a successful flow control strategy

0960-1481/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.06.040
346 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354
Nomenclature
c airfoil or turbine blade chord length
CP turbine power coefficient, Pt/qNUNHD
CT static turbine torque coefficient T/qNcHR
Cm plasma momentum coefficient Fp/qNcH
D turbine diameter, 2R
DC duty cycle: ton/tp
fion plasma ionization frequency
fp plasma pulsation frequency, 1/tp
Fp plasma thrust
Fþ reduced frequency fpc/UN
Fþt,u turbine upwind reduced frequency, fpc/(l þ 1)UN
Fþt,d turbine downwind reduced frequency, fpc/(l1)UN
H turbine height
N number of blades
would require a method that can control stall alternately on both
sides of the blade. Furthermore, any technique must be energy
efficient in that annual energy yield should far exceed the energy
required to drive the actuators. Based on a system study conducted
by Sasson and Greenblatt [20,21], effective and energy efficient
control could have three important benefits: firstly, the annual
energy yield can be increased by up to a factor of three; secondly,
the power increases will occur in the lower l regime and hence
work in favor of noise reduction and lower structural loads; and
thirdly, oscillatory aerodynamic loads imposed on the structure can
be reduced.
The objective of this study was to improve performance on
a VAWT by controlling dynamic stall on the blades using periodic
perturbations. This was achieved by constructing a small, high
solidity, turbine equipped with surface mounted dielectric barrier
discharge (DBD) plasmas actuators. The results of a parametric
study and a turbine performance assessment are reported here. The
application of DBD plasma actuators was demonstrated on
stationary and dynamically pitching airfoils by Corke et al. [22] and
Post and Corke [23]. The actuators are typically driven in the kilovolt
range at several hundred hertz to several kilohertz and these
produce plasma microdischarges, at time-scales O(109 s) during
the positive- and negative-going drive signals. The net result on the
surrounding air is a wall-jet, which is considered analogous to the
jet blown from a two-dimensional slot. Post and Corke [23] also
considered aerodynamic effects when driving the actuators in
a pulsed mode. Pulsing the actuator brings with it two significant
advantages. Firstly, it has long been recognized that periodic
perturbations can achieve aerodynamic performance benefits that
are comparable or superior to steady blowing at one to two orders of
magnitude less momentum input [24]. Secondly, Greenblatt et al.
[25] and Bachmann et al. [26] observed that DBD plasma duty cycles
(DC) of 1% and 50% produced comparable aerodynamic perfor-
mance. Because power supplied to the actuator is proportional to
duty cycle, it is possible that this plasma power input can be reduced
sufficiently so as to render it viable for turbine applications. Finally,
DBD plasma actuators have wide appeal because they have no
moving or mechanical elements and are robust and reliable.
2. Experimental setup
The turbine used in this investigation consisted of a vertical
shaft rotating on two self-aligning bearings, two horizontal
adapters used for the attachment of connecting rods and two
vertical blades attached to the connecting rods. The blades were
Pt turbine power, Tu
Pp plasma actuator power input
R turbine radius
Re Reynolds number
ton time that plasma is active within a cycle
T turbine average torque
U, UN wind tunnel speed
qN wind tunnel dynamic pressure
VN wind speed
a airfoil or blade angle-of-attack
astall airfoil or blade stall angle-of-attack
l blade speed to wind speed ratio, uR/UN
q blade azimuth
s turbine solidity, Nc/R
u turbine rotational speed
connected symmetrically on the shaft but shifted upwards to
produce a long free end, intended for future flow particle image
velocimetry (PIV) measurements. The turbine was installed in
a low-speed blow-down wind tunnel with a 1 m  0.61 m test
section area (2 m long) and a maximum wind speed of 55 m/s. The
maximum turbulence level in the center of the tunnel was 0.3% of
the free-stream velocity. A schematic of the turbine is shown in
Fig. 1a and a photograph of the turbine installed in the wind tunnel
is shown in Fig. 1b.
A custom dynamometer was coupled to the shaft and mounted
below the turbine outside the tunnel. The dynamometer comprised
of a magnetic brake, used to load the turbine, and a Kistler torque/
rotational speed transducer (see Fig. 2). The largest source of
measurement error was that associated with the torque measure-
ment, namely 0.0015 N m according to the manufacturer’s spec-
ification. Flexible couplings were employed to compensate for
misalignments. The turbine dimensions were diameter D ¼ 0.5 m
and height H ¼ 0.6 m; these dimensions were dictated by the test
section dimensions. The blades employed were symmetric
NACA 0015 profiles of chord length c ¼ 150 mm, constructed
from extruded aluminum. The resulting turbine solidity, namely
s ¼ Nc/R ¼ 1.25, was relatively high.
DBD plasma actuators were attached to the leading-edges of the
blades. The actuators used were similar to those used in previous
studies, namely the upper (exposed) and lower (encapsulated)
electrodes (both 70 mm thick) separated by three layers of 50 mm
thick KaptonÒ tape. These were wrapped around the leading-edge
of the blade as shown schematically in Fig. 3a. A layer of 50 mm
thick KaptonÒ tape was applied to the blade to isolate the actuator
from the wing. The actuators were driven at an ionization
frequency of fion ¼ 8 kHz at V ¼ 8 kVpp (2.83 kVrms). Pulsation
frequencies were chosen to represent the Fþ range between O(0.1)
and O(5), corresponding to 10 Hz
fp
500 Hz and the duty cycle
range tested was 1%
DC
50%. Fig. 3b is a photograph of the
turbine from above the wind tunnel, showing the adapters, con-
necting rods and a blade. An identical actuator was calibrated
independently by mounting it on sensitive load cell while recording
its developed thrust (Fp) as a function of power input. The thrust
developed at V ¼ 8 kVpp was 1.5 mN/m with a power consumption
of 45 W/m at 100% duty cycle.
For the purpose of conducting the high-voltage AC power
required to operate the DBD actuators, slip-rings were installed on
both turbine’s shaft ends. An end-type slip-ring was mounted at the
top of the shaft and a through-bore-type was mounted below,
above the dynamometer. In order to avoid large voltage differences
 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354 347

Fig. 1. a. Schematic representation of the VAWT showing the main components. b. Photograph of the turbine mounted in the wind tunnel.

within the each slip-ring, the high-voltage and earthed connectors extend this definition by using the velocity relative to the blade
were connected via the upper and lower slip-rings respectively (see namely W, such that
Fig. 2).
fp c
Ftþ h (2)
3. Controlling parameters and experimental methods W
In all subsequent discussion we shall assume that the chord length
The reduced frequency definition Fþ appropriate to the VAWT is constant, as it is in this study, for simplicity. If we attempt to set
blades does not have a straight-forward definition as for example a constant Fþt , much like in airfoil studies, we encounter three main
its definition on stationary airfoil studies, which is: difficulties:

fp c 1. The instantaneous value of W varies around the azimuth q.

Fþh (1)
UN 2. The variation of W as a function of q depends on l.
where UN is the free-stream velocity (wind tunnel velocity) and fp 3. The instantaneous value of W must be estimated theoretically
is the plasma pulsation frequency. In the case of the turbine, we can or measured.

Fig. 2. Schematic of the turbine, dynamometer and plasma excitation system.

348 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354

Fig. 3. a. Schematic of the blade leading-edge region showing attachment of the DBD plasma actuator. b. Photograph of the wind turbine shown from above the wind tunnel
transparent wall.

Thus in order to maintain a constant Fþ, the physical pulsation
frequency fp must be variable. For the sake of simplicity, in this
investigation we did not attempt to change the frequency of actu-
ation as a function of q at any of the l’s tested. Instead, a constant
frequency was selected for each set of experiments. Apart from this
practical simplification, the approach can also be justified on
physical grounds because static thick airfoil lift coefficient data
show only a weak dependence on the reduced plasma pulsing
frequency in the range 1
Fþ
5 [26]. Thus a constant physical
frequency can be selected such that Fþ t varies within this range.
To distinguish between dynamic stall commencing on the
advancing and retreating blades, two nominal reduced frequencies
were defined: one for experiments conducted on the upstream half
of the turbine; and one for experiments conducted on the down-
stream half of the turbine, namely:
4.0 m/s
UN
7 m/s that are representative of commonly
encountered wind speeds. For all tests the wind tunnel speed was
maintained constant with in 0.1 m/s. Two main types of experi-
ments were performed: (a) parametric studies; and (b) turbine
performance evaluations. Parametric studies were performed by
setting a particular tunnel speed and dynamometer load and
then varying the plasma control parameters systematically. The
turbine parameters were selected based on corresponding param-
eters known to control separation on static airfoils. Overall turbine
performance was assessed by fixing a particular tunnel velocity and

þ fp c fp c
Ft;u h ¼ (3)
u R þ UN ðl þ 1ÞUN
and

þ fp c fp c
Ft;d h ¼ (4)
u R  UN ðl  1ÞUN
respectively (see Fig. 4). Here it is assumed that the so-called
induced velocity through the turbine and the tunnel velocity are
equal (UN ¼ Va), which is a reasonable assumption at low l.
Although these two definitions do not take into account the vari-
ability of the reduced frequency, nor the interference effect of the
turbine, they represent nominal values just prior to the blade
pitching into the post-stall regime. In a similar manner, we also
define the nominal Reynolds numbers:

ðuR þ UN Þc ðl þ 1ÞUN c
Ret:u h ¼ (5)
n n
and

ðuR  UN Þc ðl  1ÞUN c
Ret:d h ¼ (6)
n n
to estimate of the range of Reynolds numbers encountered by the
blades.
Initial experiments were carried out with the plasma actuators
configured to control dynamic stall on the upwind half of the Fig. 4. Top view schematic of a three-bladed VAWT showing the velocity components
turbine. Experiments were performed at tunnel speeds in the range relative to the blade.
 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354
then varying the load gradually from the fully unloaded condition
until the turbine stopped. The identical procedure was conducted
for the baseline (uncontrolled) case and controlled case with
a particular parameter combination. These data were augmented
with static tests and surface flow visualization.
4. Discussion of results
4.1. Baseline turbine and the effect of slip-rings
Prior to evaluating the effect of plasma actuation, baseline
turbine performance data were acquired as shown in Fig. 5a and b.
The figures show the baseline power coefficient (CP ¼ Pt/qNUNHD)
and torque without slip-rings as well as the effect of adding the
upper end-type slip-ring and both the upper end-type and the
lower through-bore slip-rings. The relatively small l range shown
in Fig. 5a is typical for a turbine with high solidity such as this
(s h Nc/R ¼ 1.2). The power coefficients measured here are expec-
ted to be greater than the actual turbine values due to the blockage
effect of the wind tunnel walls. The data were not corrected for this
because the primary objective here was to assess the relative
change between baseline and controlled scenarios (see Sections 4.2
and 4.3). The figures illustrate the significant effect of torsional slip-
rings friction: the upper slip-ring reduced the torque by approxi-
mately 0.04 N m while the combination produced almost no power
at UN ¼ 4.3 m/s. An increase in tunnel velocity to UN ¼ 4.9 was
required to produce torque values comparable to those obtained
with one slip-ring. Hence it was concluded that the total friction
associated with both slip-rings together was approximately
0.14 N m. For these small-scale wind tunnel tests the slip-rings have
a significant effect. However, up-scaling the turbine markedly
reduces this effect as discussed in Section 4.4.
4.2. Parametric study
Following the baseline evaluation of the turbine, a parametric
study was performed to assess turbine performance improvements
subject to the plasma parameters of duty cycle and pulsation
a b
Fig. 5. Baseline performance of the turbine showing the effect of slip-rings on performance: (a) power coefficient versus l; (b) turbine mean torque versus rotational speed.
349
frequency as well as wind tunnel velocity. Fig. 6a and b shows the
transient turbine rotational speed when subjected to plasma
pulsations for different duty cycles. These data are typical of all
parametric studies conducted here. Two groups of data are pre-
sented: one for UN ¼ 4.9 m/s (Fig. 6a) and one for 7.0 m/s (Fig. 6b). In
all cases, data were acquired initially under baseline conditions for
t < 10 s; and at t ¼ 10 s the plasma actuators were initiated. In all
cases shown here, a frequency fe ¼ 200 Hz was selected. This corre-
sponded to the range of reduced frequencies 1.3
Fþ t,u
2.1 observed
to increase lift on thick non-symmetric airfoils at Re
100,000
[25,26]. Following initiation of the actuation, the turbine rotational
speed increases and eventually settles to a higher rotational speed.
With the dynamometer load constant, the measured torque remains
unchanged, and hence the gross increase in turbine power is directly
proportional to the increase in rotational speed. For each data set, it
can be seen that, although the variation with time is somewhat
different, the duty cycle does not have a significant effect on the final
rotational speed. This result is consistent with static airfoil data
[25,26] and is significant because it means that the same increase in
turbine power can be achieved with much less power to drive the
actuators, thereby increasing the net turbine power. The effect of this
on overall performance will be discussed below.
It can further be seen by comparing Fig. 6a and b that the “rise
time” is longer at 4.9 m/s than at 7.0 m/s: typically between
40 se80 s and 20 se40 s, respectively. This is due to the larger loads
resulting from the combination of higher tunnel speed and rota-
tional speed. For each run, sufficient time was allowed for stabili-
zation of the turbine and, following that, long time averages
(approximately 30 s) of the data were acquired. The turbine
response to plasma actuation exhibited substantial hysteresis. This
can be seen by comparing the difference in the initial baseline
speeds. Each of these “initial conditions” followed termination of
actuation from the previous experiment, followed by slowing-
down and stabilization of the rotational speed. To account for this
hysteresis, the changes in turbine power were calculated from the
changes in turbine rotational speed, namely DPt ¼ TDu, based on
the initial and final conditions for each experiment. Examples of
turbine power coefficient changes as a function of duty cycle are
350 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354

a b

Fig. 6. Transient turbine rotational speed resulting from initiation of plasma actuation for different duty cycles at two wind tunnel velocities. The reduced frequency range is:
1.3
Fþ
t,u
2.1.

shown in Fig. 7 for 4.9, 5.9 and 7.0 m/s. As expected from the
transient data shown in Fig. 6a and b, large variations in duty cycle
have virtually no effect on the turbine power coefficient. If we
consider only changes to turbine power, this accounts partially for
the hysteresis phenomenon. The differences in the changes to the
power coefficient at the different speeds shown in Fig. 7 result from
the different l of the turbine. For example, the U ¼ 5.9 data set has
an initial l ¼ 1.7, which is lower than the others, and hence the
blades are stalled for a greater fraction of the azimuth. Conse-
quently, when the plasma is initiated and the separated boundary
layer is controlled, the percentage increase in power is the largest.
Transient data were acquired as a function of frequency in the
same manner as that acquired as a function of duty cycle described
above. Percentage changes in power coefficient for data acquired at
different wind speeds and l are shown in Fig. 8 as a function of Fþ
t,u.
Three data sets represent individual experiments, while the one
U ¼ 7.1 m/s set was acquired by increasing the pulsation frequency
fp without allowing the turbine to return to its baseline state.
Comparing the two data sets at U ¼ 7.1 m/s shows another aspect of
the turbines hysteresis: higher power coefficients can be obtained
by successively increasing the pulsation frequencies rather than
running the turbine each time from its baseline state.

Fig. 7. Effect of duty cycle on changes to the power coefficient for different wind tunnel velocities at the corresponding range of reduced frequencies 1.3
Fþ
t,u
2.1.
 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354 351

Fig. 8. Effect of reduced frequency on changes to the power coefficient for different wind tunnel velocities.

One puzzling aspect of the turbine’s frequency dependence is
that its performance increases continuously with increasing
frequency. Similar observations were also made at DC ¼ 50%. This
observation is totally at odds with data acquired on static airfoils at
post-stall angles-of-attack under steady free-stream conditions
where peak lift coefficient changes are typically in the reduced
frequency range 0.5e1. It should also be noted that our convenient
definition of Fþ t,u will under-predict the actual value on the blade for
0 < q < 180 . For example, when q ¼ 90 , Fþ t ¼ fpc/uR ¼ fpc/lUN
which is greater than Fþ t,u defined in equation (3). Hence optimum
reduced frequencies observed here are much larger than those on
static airfoils.
In an attempt to understand the phenomenon better, the
turbine was fixed with one blade at q ¼ 20 , namely a ¼ 20 , such
that the flow over the static blade was separated. Data were
acquired as function of frequency, although here the changes in
torque DT were measured and are presented in dimensionless form
DCT ¼ DT/qNcHR in Fig. 9. The higher peak values attained at lower
speeds are due to the lower plasma force relative to the increasing
wind tunnel dynamic pressure. These data show a completely
different dependence on reduced frequency, with peaks attained at
reduced frequencies between 1.5 and 2. The optimum frequency is
somewhat larger than that based on the lift changes to static airfoils
(0.5e1) and may be due to a combination of both changes in lift and
drag, which both act to vary the torque. The changes in torque were
clearly due to separation control as confirmed by surface tuft flow
visualization shown in Fig. 10aed. The photographs shown in
Fig. 10aec were taken at arbitrarily times and illustrate the large

Fig. 9. Effect of reduced frequency on the static coefficient with one turbine blade locked at q ¼ 20 .
352 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354
Fig. 10. Tuft visualization of flow on the inboard side of the blade (turbine stationary) at q ¼ a ¼ 20 : (a)e(c) random photographs with control off (d) representative photograph at
Fþ ¼ 2.
oscillations of the tufts as they are exposed to the unsteady sepa-
rated flow. Fig. 10d shows the tufts when the plasma actuation is
initiated at Fþ ¼ 2 and is representative of this tuft pattern
remaining time-invariant while the plasma actuator is active. The
thrust effect of the actuator on the torque when the blade was un-
stalled (q ¼ a ¼ 0 ) was un-measurable even at duty cycles of 50%.
This was fully consistent with the actuator calibration which pre-
dicted a value of 0.11 mN m on a single 0.6 m span blade at 50% duty
cycle. The differences between the turbine performance and the
torque changes may be due to two factors. The first is the effect of
dynamic pitching and the second concerns the relationship
between the plasma pulsation frequency and turbine rotation
frequency, namely the ratio 2pfp/u.
To further understand the effect of blade pitching, consider the
conventional non-dimensional pitch-rate parameter defined for
oscillating airfoils:
khuc=2UN
where unsteady effects are generally observed to manifest for
k > 0.01. By analogy with our definition for reduced pulsation
frequency in equation (3), we define for the turbine
uc uc
kt;u h ¼ (8)
2ðuR þ UN Þ 2ðl þ 1ÞUN
and based on this definition kt,u > 0.15. Even though this is rela-
tively high, Greenblatt et al. [27] observed that the optimum
control frequencies are not affected on pitching airfoils providing
that 2pfp/u [ 1. However, in that study the airfoil oscillation
amplitudes were small; the turbine case is significantly different.
Consider a typical case where Fþ
t,u ¼ 2 and l ¼ 2. By substitution of
dimensionless groups, we can write the ratio:
2pfp lþ1 R þ
¼ 2p F (9)
u l c t;u
Under these conditions 2pfp/u ¼ 31 which would appear to
fulfill the condition suggested by Greenblatt et al. [27]. However, on
the turbine this translates to one perturbation every 11.6 degrees
on the azimuth. The lack of an enforced phase relationship between
the forcing and the turbine rotation means that the perturbations
are introduced at arbitrary angles, possibly even after the flow has
already begun separating from the surface. By increasing the
perturbation frequency the differences in the azimuthal angles are
smaller and this causes the perturbations to be introduced closer to
onset of dynamic stall. Hence, although the higher frequencies are
not the optimum for performance improvements, the fact that they
are introduced more consistently closer to dynamic stall onset
(7)
renders them more effective. Phase-locking the perturbations with
the turbine rotation has the potential to overcome this limitation.
Moreover, designing a turbine where the optimum reduced
frequencies correspond to 2pfp/u > O(102) would clearly also have
potential to improve performance. Effects of scaling-up the turbine
on the frequency ratio parameter are described in Section 4.4.
4.3. Turbine performance evaluation
Fig. 11 shows the overall turbine performance for two wind
speeds, UN ¼ 4.9 m/s and 5.9 m/s, for both the baseline turbine as
well as control in the range 4.4
Fþ
t,u
5.6. For each tunnel speed,
 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354
Fig. 11. Overall turbine performance improvements at two wind tunnel speeds for control on the upwind side of the blades with DC ¼ 5%.
plasma produces an increase in performance over almost the entire
operational range. The peak power coefficients are increased by
38% and 31% respectively. The baseline turbine performance is
strongly dependent on the tunnel speed and there are two main
reasons for this. The first is the turbine torque produced relative to
the friction in the bearings and slip-rings and the second is the
different Reynolds numbers encountered by the blades.
The effect of slip-ring friction on these measurements is eluci-
dated by comparing the frictional torque versus the mean torque
produced by the turbine. As discussed above in Section 4.1 (see
Fig. 5a and b), addition of the upper slip-ring added 0.04 N m of
frictional torque while the addition of both the upper and lower
slip-rings produced approximately 0.14 N m of frictional torque. For
baseline tests at UN ¼ 4.9 m/s and 5.9 m/s the peak net torque
values produced by the turbine are 0.067 N m and 0.15 N m which
are comparable to the friction in the slip-rings. Because the
increased wind speed is accompanied by increases in torque, the
slip-ring friction effect is smaller at the higher speed. Clearly, with
increasing scales the effects of slip-ring friction will become
successively smaller (see Section 4.4), but for the small-scale
experiments conducted here, their effect is significant.
The second factor responsible for the differences observed here
is Reynolds number. For the UN ¼ 4.9 m/s and 5.9 m/s cases the
nominal Reynolds number ranges (Ret,u to Ret,d) defined above vary
from 24,500 to 166,000 and from 41,300 to 212,000 respectively.
Carmichael [28] shows that for airfoil Reynolds numbers between
30,000 and 70,000 large differences in airfoil performance are
observed. Thick airfoils, such as the NACA 0015 used here, suffer
from significant hysteresis that results from differences in laminar
boundary separation and attachment as the airfoil pitches up and
down. In addition, at Re < 50,000 the separated laminar shear layer
does not transition to turbulence and reattach to the surface. These
problems can be ameliorated using thin airfoils [29], but these are
generally not structurally viable on VAWTs due to the large
centrifugal loads. For the range 70,000
Re
200,000, airfoil
performance generally improves markedly. Hence, even though the
increase in tunnel speed considered here was relatively modest, the
combined effect of this and the different l ranges produced
353
differences in Reynolds number where significant changes in
aerodynamic performance are observed.
4.4. Turbine scaling considerations
Based on the data acquired in this study, predictions can be
made regarding the viability of DBD plasma actuators on full-scale
wind turbines. The main questions considered here relate to the
effectiveness and efficiency of the plasma actuation if the turbine
dimensions are increased. For simplicity, we assume that the
turbine scales linearly, namely the turbine height to radius ratio H/R
remains constant, but that the chord length remains constant.
The first aspect relates to the frictional torque introduced with
installation of the slip-rings. For the present turbine the maximum
frictional torque produced by both slip-rings together was esti-
mated to be 0.14 N m. At low power, typically less than 10 W (see
Fig. 9), this was an appreciable fraction of the total turbine torque.
Consider up-scaling the turbine by a factor of 5, namely R ¼ 1.25 m
and H ¼ 3.0 m which is typical of many small turbines intended for
personal off-grid use [3]. Assuming a typical power coefficient
CP ¼ 0.32 at a wind speed of 5 m/s, the turbine produces 180 W. At
the same l as the measurements performed here, the peak turbine
torque is 22.5 N m and hence the slip-ring torque is now only 0.14/
22.5  100 ¼ 0.62% of the peak torque. Up-scaling the turbine by
a factor of 10 to a 2.5 m radius producing 0.72 kW at 5 m/s, the slip-
ring torque percentage drops to 0.16%. Clearly, as the turbine size
increases, so the relative frictional torque diminished dramatically.
Additionally, it should be noted that in the present application,
the end-type upper slip-ring produced only 0.04 N m of frictional
torque as compared the lower through-bore-type that produced
more than twice as much frictional torque. The only reason for
using through-bore slip-rings here was to facilitate the attachment
of the custom dynamometer. For an up-scaled turbine, end-type
slip-rings could be employed resulting in even lower friction.
Assuming wind speeds and l comparable to those employed
in the experiments, the plasma actuators power input relative
to the turbine power can be estimated. The power input to the
actuators is 1.2 W per blade at DC ¼ 1% and hence the total power
354 D. Greenblatt et al. / Renewable Energy 37 (2012) 345e354
to both blades is 2.4 W. Because the plasma actuation serves no
useful purpose in the downwind half of the turbine, it can be
terminated for this ½ of the cycle. If we consider turbine dimen-
sions R ¼ 1.25 m and H ¼ 3.0 m as before then the total power input
would be less than 2.4 W  (3/0.6)  0.5 cycle ¼ 6 W for 180 W of
power output, namely 3.3%. The resulting turbine would have
a solidity of s ¼ Nc/R ¼ 0.24 which is comparable to turbines of
these scales. For the R ¼ 2.5 m machine the plasma power input is
1.7% of the turbine power.
On the basis of the discussion in Section 4.2, particularly with
regards to equation (9), it was concluded that optimal performance
is attained when the optimum reduced frequencies correspond to
the ratio 2pfp/u being as large as possible. From equation (9), it is
evident that for a given l and optimum reduced frequency the ratio
2pfp/u f R/c. Hence for the two examples presented above, namely
R ¼ 1.25 m and 2.5 m this ratio increases by a factor of 5 and 10
respectively, namely 2pfp/u ¼ 155 and 310, which favorably affects
the turbine performance.
Based on the present data we can also make estimates regarding
turbine performance at higher wind speeds for given turbine
dimensions. On airfoils tested under static conditions, in order to
maintain a constant performance improvement, the momentum
coefficient
Fp
Cm ¼ (10)
qN cH
must be maintained constant, namely the plasma thrust must scale
with the dynamic pressure. For the turbine, we can define the
momentum coefficient as:
Fp Fp
Cm;tu ¼ ¼ (11)
1=2rðUN þ uRÞ2 cH qN ð1 þ lÞ cH
2
and note that for the turbine at a given l, plasma thrust also scales
with the dynamic pressure. According to the data of Thomas et al.
[30] the plasma thrust force scales approximately linearly with
input power. By using different dielectric materials, Thomas et al.
[30] measured plasma thrust forces two orders of magnitude larger
than those measured here. Hence the required plasma power
estimated above due to up-scaling of the turbine is conservative
because the plasma thrust is proportional to qN while the turbine
output power is proportional to qNUN.
5. Concluding remarks
This paper reported on experiments performed on a small high-
solidity vertical axis wind turbine, with dielectric barrier discharge
actuators installed on the blade leading-edges. The actuator
employed was configured to control separation only on the
upstream half of the turbine azimuth. A parametric study showed
that duty cycle dependence observed previously on static airfoils
was also observed on the turbine. Optimum reduced frequencies,
however, showed substantially different dependence and this was
traced to the importance of the plasma pulsation frequency relative
to the turbine rotational frequency. When considering overall
performance improvements, increases in turbine power of up to
38% were measured. Based on the data acquired, up-scaling the
turbine by a factor of 5 and 10, the percentage of plasma power
required to produce comparable improvements was 3.3% and 1.7%
respectively. Further work will address phase-locking the plasma
pulsation and turbine frequencies, assessing the performance
benefits of downwind actuation, employing combined upwind and
downwind actuation and measuring the controlled flowfield using
a particle image velocimetry.
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