Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments Centre
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Dynamic Master
Stall title style
in Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
Rosario Nobile | Dr Maria Vahdati | Dr Janet Barlow | Dr Anthony Mewburn-Crook
Overview
Dynamic stall is an intrinsic phenomenon of Vertical Axis
Wind Turbines (VAWTs) at low tip speed ratios (TSRs)
and its nature can affect fatigue life and energy output
of a wind turbine. A two-dimensional Vertical Axis Wind
Turbine (VAWT) is explored. The analysis is conducted
by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools. The
numerical results are compared with experimental data.
Introduction
The last few years have proved that Vertical Axis Wind
Turbines (VAWTs) are more suitable for urban areas than
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) 1, 2, 3. However, the
aerodynamic analysis of a VAWT is very complicated than
conventional wind turbines and at low tip speed ratios
(TSRs<5), VAWTs are subjected to a phenomenon called
dynamic stall. This can really affect the fatigue life of a
VAWT if it is not well understood.
Recently, to study a full scale wind turbine in the wind
tunnel is an infeasible task due to size limitations and costs
involved. Therefore , a Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) Software, ANSYS 12.0, is selected for this study and
in order to reduce time and memory costs only a 2-D case
is explored.
Methodology
Geometry
As shown in Figure 1, the 3-D solid model of the rotor was
generated with ProEngineer 4.0. And the 2-D model of the
VAWT was generated from the middle plane and imported
into ANSYS CFX 12.0.
3-D 2-D
Figure 1. Three dimensional rotor of a straight-bladed Darrieus wind turbine obtained with
ProEngineer 4.0 and two dimensional rotor extrapolated from middle plane.
Mesh
The mesh, as shown in Figure 2, is mainly composed of
three sub-domains: one fixed sub-domain outside the
rotor, one dynamic sub-domain around the blades of the
rotor and one fixed sub-domain for the remaining part of
the rotor.
Fixed Sub-domain
Dynamic Sub-domain
Fixed Sub-domain
Figure 2. Mesh and sub-domains for the two-dimensional .VAWT
In Figure 2, the local mesh around the blades of the rotor is
refined for accurate and efficient resolution of the
boundary layer and wakes.
Boundary conditions and turbulence method
Symmetrical boundaries were used for the top and bottom
parts of the 2-D model with no-slip boundary conditions at
the two sides. An opening boundary was chosen for the
output and a constant wind was defined for the inlet.The
three Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence
methods are: the standard k-ω model, the standard k-ε
model and the SST model 4.
Dynamic stall
As shown in Figure 3, dynamic stall is mainly characterised
by flow separations at the suction side of the airfoil 5. This
can be summarised in four crucial stages:
• Leading edge separation starts,
• Vortex build-up at the leading edge,
• Detachment of the vortex from leading edge and
build-up of trailing edge vortex,
• Detachment of trailing edge vortex and breakdown of
leading edge vortex
Figure 3. An example of dynamic stall for the 2-D simulation at low TSR and different positions
of the blades.
Results
The numerical simulations obtained during the present
study are mainly compared with an experimental study
carried out in 2010 6. The SST method shows a good
agreement with the experimental data than the k-ω and k-ε
methods. Figure 4 shows how the lift and the drag
coefficients, Cl and Cd, are affected by different angles of
attack and TSRs. The curve shapes are in good agreement
with the experimental data, which is the red line on the right
side.
Figure 4. Lift and Drag coefficient (Cl and CD ) from numerical studies and experimental data.
In Figure 4, strong instability is observed for large angle of
attacks and low TSRs due to deep dynamic stall. In addition,
the development of several peaks, especially for negative
angle of attacks and low TSRs can be associated with the
development of upstream wakes that interact with the
downstream blades.
Conclusions
The key conclusion of this numerical study is that a CFD tool
will allow the visualisation of the flow aerodynamics
involved during the operation of a VAWT that is not
possible with ordinary wind tunnel tests. In general the CFD
code adopted is able to show dynamic stall that is typical
found in VAWTs at low TSRs. Also, from this numerical
analysis appears that in order to achieve a good agreement
between numerical and experimental data , the right
selection of the turbulent method is fundamental. However,
it is strongly suggested to develop a more sophisticated 3-D
model that is more realistic than 2-D.
References
1. S. Mertens, Wind energy in the built environment: concentrator effects of buildings.
TU Delft, 2006, pp. 3-14.
2. S. Stankovic, N. Campbell, and A. Harries, Urban Wind Energy. Earthscan, 2009
3. C. J. Ferreira, G. van Bussel, and G. van Kuik, 2D CFD simulation of dynamic stall on a
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine: verification and validation with PIV measurements,
presented at the 45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 2007, pp. 1-11.
4. D. C. Wilcox, Turbulence Modeling for CFD. DCW industries La Canada, 2006.
5. J. Larsen, S. Nielsen, and S. Krenk, Dynamic stall model for wind turbine airfoils, Journal
of Fluids and Structures, vol. 23, no. 7, 2007, pp. 959-982.
6. S. Wang, D. B. Ingham, L. Ma, M. Pourkashanian, and Z. Tao, Numerical investigations
on dynamic stall of low Reynolds number flow around oscillating airfoils, Computers &
Fluids, vol. 39, no. 9, 2010, pp. 1529-1541.
Acknowledgements
• The author would like to thank my academic supervisors Dr M. Vahdati and Dr J. Barlow and
my industrial supervisor Dr A. Mewburn-Crook for their supports for this work.
• The author is also grateful to the EPRSC and MatildasPlanet for funding this project.
Contact information
• Department of Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments, University of Reading,
Whiteknights, RG6 6AF
• Email: r.nobile@reading.ac.uk
• www.reading.ac.uk/tsbe