A 100-W helical-blade vertical-axis wind turbine was designed, manufactured, and tested in a wind tunnel. A relatively low tip-speed ratio of 1.1 was targeted for usage in an urban environment at a rated wind speed of 9 m/s and a rotational speed of 170 rpm. The basic dimensions were determined through a momentum-based design method according to the IEC 61400-2 protocol. The power output was estimated by a mathematical model that takes into account the aerodynamic performance of the NACA0018 blade shape. The lift and drag of the blade with respect to the angle of attack during rotation were calculated using 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to take into account stall region. The average power output calculated by the model was 108.34 W, which satisfies the target output of 100 W. The manufactured wind turbine was tested in a large closed-circuit wind tunnel, and the power outputs were measured for given wind speeds. At the design condition, the measured power output was 114.7 W, which is 5.9% higher than that of the mathematical model. This result validates the proposed design method and power estimation by the mathematical model.
This study examined the aerodynamic power output change of wind turbines with inter-turbine spacing variation for a 6 MW wind farm composed of three sets of 2 MW wind turbines using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The wind farm layout design is becoming increasingly important as the use of wind energy is steadily increasing. Among the many wind farm layout design parameters, the inter-turbine spacing is a key factor in the initial investment cost, annual energy production and maintenance cost. The inter-turbine spacing should be determined to maximize the annual energy production and minimize the wake effect, turbulence effect and fatigue load during the service lifetime of wind turbines. Therefore, some compromise between the aerodynamic power output of wind turbines and the inter-turbine spacing is needed. An actuator disc model with the addition of a momentum source was not used, and instead, a full 3-dimensional model with a tower and nacelle was used for CFD analysis because of its great technical significance. The CFD analysis results, such as the aerodynamic power output, axial direction wind speed change, pressure drop across the rotor of wind turbine, and wind speed deficit due to the wake effect with inter-turbine spacing variation, were studied. The results of this study can be applied effectively to wind farm layout design and evaluation.
OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2014, 7 7484 Keywords: aerodynamic power output; CFD (computational fluid dynamics); inter-turbine spacing; layout; offshore wind farm
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.