An experimental study was performed to assess the feasibility of passive air jet vortex-generators to the performance enhancement of a domestic scale wind turbine. It has been demonstrated that these simple devices, properly designed and implemented, can provide worthwhile performance benefits for domestic wind turbines of the type investigated in this study.In particular, this study shows that they can increase the maximum output power coefficient, reduce the cut-in wind speed and improve power output at lower wind speeds while reducing the sensitivity to wind speed unsteadiness. A theoretical performance analysis of a 500 kW stall-regulated wind turbine, based on blade element momentum theory, indicates that passive air jet vortex-generators would be capable of recovering some of the power loss because of blade stall, thereby allowing attainment of rated power output at slightly lower average wind speeds.
An experimental study is presented on the performance of a vertical axis wind turbine with variable blade geometry of the design developed by Austin Farrah. This is experimentally compared with the performance of a correspondingly sized Bach-type Savonius turbine using the same electrical generator and measurement instrumentation in a wind tunnel. Experiments were performed for Reynolds numbers, based on blade chord, in the range 5 × 103 to 1 × 105, and for blade settings between −40° and +40o. The study shows that for the tip speed ratios that have been investigated, the Farrah vertical axis wind turbine design can only marginally outperform a corresponding two-bladed Bach-type Savonius turbine and then only when its blades are set to 40° pitch angle. The presence of a small inner cylinder, which rotates with the turbine, does not enhance its performance due to the fact that it is immersed in an extensive column of relatively static air.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.