A review of H-Darrieus wind turbine aerodynamic research

Abstract

The H-Darrieus vertical axis turbine is one of the most promising wind energy converters for locations where there are rapid variations of wind direction, such as in the built environment. The most challenging considerations when employing one of these usually small machines are to ensure that they self-start and to maintain and improve their efficiency. However, due to the turbine's rotation about a vertical axis, the aerodynamics of the turbine are more complex than a comparable horizontal axis wind turbine and our knowledge and understanding of these turbines falls remains far from complete. This paper provides a detailed review of past and current studies of the H-Darrieus turbine from the perspective of design parameters including turbine solidity, blade profile, pitch angle, etc. and particular focus is put on the crucial challenge to design a turbine that will self-start. Moreover, this paper summarizes the main research approaches for studying the turbine in order to identify successes and promising areas for future study.

Some Design Features of the Carousel Type Wind Turbine Bidarrieus

“…According to previous static wind tunnel measurements of different tubercle configurations, the validation test for the optimum combination of and for NACA0021 was performed on an H-Darrieus wind turbine at various Reynolds numbers [11]. It was demonstrated experimentally that this blade could significantly increase the turbine self-starting capability at the expense of slightly lower peak power output, which was consistent with the numerical studies performed in [12].…”

“…Also, the gyroscopic effect of a propeller wind turbine can lead to emergency situations [9]. More preferable are the carousel type Darrieus wind turbines, which have the symmetrical wing form NACA and operate on the lifting power of the blades [6,[9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Despite its geometrical simplicity, the aerodynamics of the Darrieus type wind turbine is complicated involving highly unsteady flow passing through its rotor [12]. The unsteadiness is caused mainly by the large variations of the blade angle of attack during the rotor operation.…”

Review of control strategy of large horizontal‐axis wind turbines yaw system

“…Among them, the control technology of WT directly affects the active power output and component fatigue loads and has become one of the research priorities. The existing WTs are mainly divided into two types of vertical axis and horizontal axis 6 . The vertical‐axis WT does not need to track the wind direction in real time and has low requirements for control technology, but due to its immature blade development technology and low efficiency, its market share is less than 5% 7 .…”

“…The existing WTs are mainly divided into two types of vertical axis and horizontal axis. 6 The vertical-axis WT does not need to track the wind direction in real time and has low requirements for control technology, but due to its immature blade development technology and low efficiency, its market share is less than 5%. 7 As to the horizontal-axis WT, its blades are similar to aircraft wings, and it has a high utilization coefficient of wind energy.…”