International Journal of Management, Technology And Engineering ISSN NO : 2249-7455

Investigation of Aerodynamic Behavior of SG series Airfoil

on Small Wind Turbine Blade
Manoj Kumar Chaudhary1, Dr. S. Prakash2
1Research Scholar, Mechanical Engg, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, (India)

2Mechanical Engineering, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, (India)

ABSTRACT
In this research paper an Numerical and Software study of SG Airfoil (SG 6040, 6041, 6042, 6043,6050,6051)
family is undertaken at different range of Reynolds Number in between 50,000 to 50,0000. The Numerical
analysis cover the major parameter related to Aerodynamic region to design of small horizontal axis wind
turbine blade such as Reynolds’s Number, Airfoil, Lift Coefficient, Lift to Drag Ratio and Angle of attack. The
main issue of determine the appropriate wind turbine blade shape for particular application should be considered
such as Water lifting and Electricity Generation etc. The main focus of this paper is extend to complete
Knowledge of SG Airfoil family and optimized Suitable Airfoil for Small Horizontal axis wind Turbine blade
and to developed relationship between lift coefficients versus angle of attack, Reynolds Number versus angle of
attack.
Keywords: Reynold’s number, blade, aifoil, angle of attack, lift coefficient.
Nomenclature
a= Axial Interference Factor a’ = Tangential Interference Factor A= Area, (area swept by turbine blades)
B= Number of blades Cd= Coefficient of Drag Cl= Coefficient of Lift
Cp =Coefficient of Power c= Chord length r= Radius to annular blade section P= Power T=Torque
α= Angle of Attack β= Pitch Angle of Blade to Rotor Plane, U= Tangential Force on Rotor
u = Tangential Wind Speed in Rotor Plane Urel= Relative Wind Speed, λ = Tip Speed Ratio

1. INTRODUCTION
The need for electricity in present days is of prime importance due to the sort of evolved life mankind needs.
The production of power using traditional methods has taken its toll on the environment and the earth has been
polluted to degrees beyond imagination. Alternative energy and green energy from natural recourses is the need
of the hour. Technology must be used so as to provide human needs and luxuries but still not affect our planet.
With increasing awareness about our needs and priorities, one alternative source where we can draw power
would be the wind. Wind turbine was invented by engineers in order to extract energy from the wind. Because
the energy in the wind is converted to electric energy, the machine is also called wind generator. Rotor blades of
horizontal axis wind turbine are the most important part in the hub system. The performance of wind turbine
depends on the configuration and geometry of blades because it's responsible for extracting kinetic energy from
wind. As blades have aerofoil shape and this aerofoil shape gives certain lift and drag coefficients, so, certain
power can be extracted from wind. Many researchers have studied the wind turbine rotor aerodynamics. Intense
research on the wind turbine rotor aerodynamics was done during the past three decades. A lot of researchers
interested in modification of the geometry and shape of blades itself to achieve the best performance of wind

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International Journal of Management, Technology And Engineering ISSN NO : 2249-7455

turbine Modern HAWT blades have been designed using airfoil „families‟. That is, the blade tip is designed
using a thin airfoil, for high lift to drag ratio, and the root region is designed using a thick version of the same
airfoil for structural support. Typical Reynolds numbers found in wind turbine operation are in the range of
500,000 and 10 million. Generally, in the 1970s and early 1980s, wind turbine designers felt that minor
differences in airfoil performance characteristics were far less important than optimizing blade twist and taper.
For this reason, little attention was paid to the task of airfoil selection. Thus, airfoils that were in use by the
aircraft industry were chosen because aircraft were viewed as similar applications. Aviation airfoils such as the
NACA 44xx and NACA 230xx were popular airfoil choices because they had high maximum lift coefficients,
low pitching moment, and low minimum drag [Manwell et al. 2009]
2. METHODOLOGY AND DETERMINATION OF RATED POWER OF THE MACHINE
Table 2 shows the connected load of a typical household on a given day. The number of hours of utilization of
equipment’s such as fans, tube lights, television and mixer are assumed as shown in table
Table 1 Calculation data for electricity load of a small house requirement
Utilization Power in Energy Power
Equip. Power No. hrs/day W/day required/day, kWh/month
kWh

Tube 55 3 6 165 0.99 29.7

Fan 40 1 4 40 0.16 4.8
TV 100 1 10 100 1 30
Mixer 50 1 2 50 0.1 3
Total Power 355 2.25 67.5 kWh
It is observed that the total load of the household is about 355 W which will need about 2.25 kWh of electricity
in a day and 67.5 kWh in a month of 30 days. Considering the peak power rating of 355 W,
the rated power of the turbine was selected to be 350 W.
2.1. NUMERICAL METHODS AND VALIDATION

Figure 1 Flow chart for Design & Creating airfoil

Figure 1 indicates that different airfoil in Q-Blade software such as NACA 4410, and SG 6043. Above figure
shows that maximum lift coefficient and less drag coefficient obtained for SG 6043 airfoil. Hence selected

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Airfoil is SG 6043 for blade design and simulation in Q- blade software. In the run-up to creating a rotor, all its
airfoils and the corresponding polar data need to be defined. Airfoils can be created using splines, a SG 6043
airfoil generator or via an import function in XFLR5. In this case, the SG 6043 is loaded
Table 2 Geometry for SG Airfoil Family
SR.
Airfoil SG 6040 SG 6041 SG 6042 SG 6043 SG 6050 SG 6051
No.
1 Thickness: 16.00% 10.00% 10.00% 10.00% 16.00% 12.00%
2 Camber: 2.50% 2.00% 3.70% 5.50% 3.20% 3.20%
3 Trailing edge angle: 12.4o 11.3o 10.9o 10.6o 36.8o 34.3o

4 Lower flatness: 6.50% 10.80% 23.90% 18.70% 7.50% 13.00%

5 Leading edge radius: 3.10% 2.10% 2.20% 2.30% 3.10% 2.30%

6 Efficiency: 42.1 32.6 38.3 51.8 40.8 34.3

7 Max CL: 1.495 1.174 1.5 1.811 1.471 1.235

Figure 2 SG Airfoil import in Q-Blade for (SG 6040, 6041, 6042, 6043, 6050, & 6050)

3. NUMERICAL METHOD VALIDATION

Figure 3 Lift Coefficient versus angle of attack for SG 6040 & 6041 at different Reynolds No.

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Figure 4 Lift Coefficient versus angle of attack for SG 6042 & 6043 at different Reynolds No.

Figure 5 Lift Coefficient versus angle of attack for SG 6050 & 6051 at different Reynolds No.

Table 3 Airfoils tool results at different Reynolds Number

Airfoil SG 6040 SG 6041 SG 6042 SG 6043 SG 6050 SG 6051
α
Reynold α Max α Max α Max α Max α Max Max
(de
s No (deg) Cl/Cd (deg) Cl/Cd (deg) Cl/Cd (deg) Cl/Cd (deg) Cl/Cd Cl/Cd
g)
50000 11.5 26.1 5.75 35.4 7.25 40 8.75 39.7 6.5 32.5 8.5 35.8
50000 8.5 26.4 5.5 35.1 6.75 39.5 8 37.9 9.75 25.6 8 34.3
100000 9 50.5 5 53.5 6 62.9 7 66.5 9.5 50 7.5 58.1
100000 7.75 50.9 4.5 49.8 5.25 60.7 9 65.6 7.5 52.4 6.5 57.1
200000 7.75 72.9 4 72.8 4.75 89 5.5 98 7.75 74.7 6.5 85.2
200000 6.75 68.2 3.25 63.9 3.75 82.3 4.25 94.7 6.75 73.2 5.5 78.4
500000 6.75 96.6 3.25 91.5 3.25 12.6 3.5 143 6.25 105.1 5.25 113
500000 5.75 88.5 6.25 74.2 2.25 106.3 2.25 129.8 5.75 97.3 4.25 102.3
1000000 5.5 114.7 2.5 96.5 2.25 145.5 2.5 175.2 5.75 126.5 4.25 133.6
1000000 5.25 102.3 7 88 3 110.9 2.5 145.2 6.25 113 3.5 115.8

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160
140
120
100
Ma x C l/C d 80
60
S G 6040 S G 6041 S G 6042 S G 6043 S G 6050 S G 6051
40
20
0
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000
R e y n o ld s N o .

Figure 6 Maximum Lift –Drag ratio versus Reynolds Number for SG Airfoil family

SG 6040 SG 6041 SG 6042

150 100 1 50
100 1 00
50
50 50
M a x C l/C d 0 M a x C l/C d 0 Ma x C l/C d 0

0
0
00 0

0
0
0

00
00
00

00
00

10

10
10

R e y n o ld s N o . R e y n o ld s N o . R e y n o ld s N o .

Figure 7 Maximum Lift –Drag ratio versus Reynolds Number for SG 6040, 6041 & 6042

SG 6043 SG 6050 SG 6051

200 150 150
100 100
100 50 50
Ma x C l/C d 0 Ma x C l/C d 0 M a x C l/C d 0
00 0

00 0
0
0
0

00
00
00
00

10

10
10

R e y n o ld s N o . R e y n o ld s N o . R e y n o ld s N o .

Figure 8 Maximum Lift –Drag ratio versus Reynolds Number for SG 6043, 6050 & 6051
Figure no 3 to 8 represents the maximum lift to drag ratio at different Reynolds Number for SG 6040, 6041,
6042, 6043, 6050 and 6051
4. DETERMINATION OF CP-Λ CURVE BY USING Q-BLADE SOFTWARE
QBlade AE is used to investigate the behaviour of wind turbine blades, which are equipped with active flow
control elements using an aero elastic simulation. It is embedded in the open-source software Q-Blade which
again is an extension of XFLR5 .It is developed with the cross-platform C++ framework Qt, which allows easy
programming of applications with a graphical user interface. The features of the program suite are:

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Figure 9 Cp versus λ curve, HAWT rotor simulation

Figure 8 indicates that coefficient of power (Cp) versus tip speed ratio (λ) and torque coefficient versus (Ct)
versus tip speed ratio for SG 6043
5. PROTOTYPE MODELING IN XLR5 SOFTWARE USING SG 6043 AIRFOIL
After the selection of airfoil the next step is modeling of blade in any of the design software. We have used
Solid works software for the same. Initial step in constructing a model of blade in Solid works starts with
importing the airfoil of desired chord length for each of the section. We have divided `the blade in ten
sections with 80 mm distance between each section. Airfoil was imported from air tools website and plotted
on each plane using convert entities command of Solid works, then by using the lofted command model was
constructed in Solid works.

Figure 10 HAWT blade design and optimization sub module

6. PROTOTYPE MODAL & MANUFACTURING MODEL
Manufacturing by 3D printing process using ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point. ABS
is a terpolymers made by polymerizing styrene and Acrylonitrile in the presence of polybutadiene. The most
important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance and toughness. A variety of modifications can
be made to improve impact resistance, toughness, and heat resistance. The impact resistance can be
amplified by increasing the proportions of polybutadiene in relation to styrene and also Acrylonitrile,
although this causes changes in other properties. Impact resistance does not fall off rapidly at lower
temperatures. Stability under load is excellent with limited loads. Thus, by changing the proportions of its
components, ABS can be prepared in different grades. Characteristics within a temperature range from −20
to 80 °C (−4 to 176 °F).

Figure 11 Models in Solid works & Prototype model

Structural analysis of blade design is done in the Q- Blade software. For the analysis first Turbine BEM
simulation is done and cut in wind speed and rated wind speed values are entered and simulation is done.

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This simulation is further used in structural blade design and simulation. Values of modulus of elasticity and
density for selected material are entered and analysis is done. Here value of modulus of elasticity and density
for ABS is entered. Value of Modulus of elasticity (E) = 2.6 * 109 Mpa and density ρ = 1052 kg/m3 Also
static loading of blade and deflection can be found out from this simulation.
7. CONCLUSIONS
The goal of the approach presented here is to investigate a simplified method of blade design while
maintaining acceptable accuracy in small wind turbine blade design. In above table represented blade result
for number of blade 3, 5 & 7 respectively. Also, When number of blades is increased from 3 to 7, values of
power coefficient increases up to 10%.The 3, 5 & 7 bladed rotor achieved value of Cp 0.46, 0.5 & 0.48 at the
pitch angle of 0 and 3 degree, respectively whereas the Torque Coeff of 3, 5 and 7-bladed rotor achieved
value of 0.06, 0.1, 0.12 at Tip speed ratio 7, 5 & 4 respectively. SG 6043 airfoil gives better performance as
Compared to SG 6040, 6041,6042,6050,6051.

C p -λ c u r v e
0.7
ide a l ty pe w ind m ills ne w de v e lope d des ig n s a v onius rotor
0.6

0.5

0.4
hig h s pe e d tw o bla de d turbine s D a rrie us rotor D utc h four a rm ty pe
P o w e c o e f fic ie n t , C p
0.3

0.2

0.1
a m e ric a n
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

R a t io o f b la d e t ip s p e e d t o w in d s p e e d ( λ )

Figure 12 Comparisons optimum design result with existing turbine

In Figure no 12, it is observed that at tip speed ratio 4 to 5 gives maximum power coefficient. It observed
that the approximate 8% and 4% maximum annual energy production was obtained for blade number is
equal to 5 as compared the blade number is equal to 3 and 7, and capacity factor is equal to be =0.145 for all
cases. Hence optimum number of blade is equal to be 5.Also we conclude that the airfoil SG 6043 is best
suited airfoil for our design. We are using the ANSYS software for analysis the design of blade and
comparing the results with analytical results. Our factor of safety by analytical method is 5.37 and by
structural method are 6.72. Hence design is safe.

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REFERENCES

[1] Almukhtar, Ali. H., “Effect of Drag on the Performance for an Efficient Wind Turbine Blade Design”
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[3] Benini, Ernesto., and Toffolo, Andrea., “Optimal Design of Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines Using Blade-
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[5] Duquette, M.M. and Visser, K.D., “Numerical Implication of Solidity and Blade Number on Rotor
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[6] Alam, F. and Saleh, Mobin.,“Status of Power Generation by Domestic Scale Wind Turbine in Australia”,
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[8] Fuglsang, P., and Madsen, H. A., “Optimization Method for Wind Turbine Rotors” Journal of wind
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[9] Giguere, P., and Seling, M. S., “Blade Design Trade off Using Low Lift Airfoils for Stall Regulated
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[10] Hirahara, H., and Nonomura Y., “Testing Basic Performance of a Very Small Wind Turbine Designed
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REFERENCE BOOKS:

1] Mc-Gowan J. G., Manwell J. F., and Rogers A.L., Wind Energy Explained Theory, Design, and
Application, University of Massachosetts, Amherst, USA, 2002, pp.95-130.
2] Patel, M. R., “Wind and Solar Power Systems, Design, Analysis and Operation”, 2nd ed., U.S. Merchant
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3] Sharpe, D., Bossnyi, E., Burton, T., and Jenkins, N., Wind Energy Handbook, John Wiley Sons Limited,
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4] Wood, D., “Small Wind Turbines Analysis, Design, and Application”, Caklgary University, pp. 119-126.

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