Aerodynamic Numerical Testing of Megawatt Wind Turbine Blade to Find Optimum Angle of Attack

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the oldest kinds of energy source used by mankind and it is dating back to thousand years. At the beginning of twentieth century, multi blades wind turbines were improved and used for charging in USA. After oil crisis in in the seventies, there was a surge of alternative energy sources in USA, Denmark and Germany. In terms of installed capacity, Germany had the leadership until 2007, then it passed to USA and finally China becomes the leader. Today, 6 MW capacity wind turbine are available in the market. The majority of the airfoils in use on horizontal-axis wind turbines today were originally developed for aircraft but it has been begun to design airfoil especially for wind turbine for 20 years. S series airfoil poses the most significant examples designed by NREL. In this study, S809 airfoil was simulated using the SST turbulence model and compared with experimental data to validate simulation accuracy of the computational fluid dynamics and this calculation. After verifying the consistency of the simulation model, S830 airfoil was simulated with different Reynolds numbers or velocities. Lift and drag coefficient, lift to drag ratio and pressure coefficient were calculated and compared.

Influence of the Curvature Correction on Turbulence Models for the Prediction of the Aerodynamic Coefficients of the S809 Airfoil

“…H. Sogukpinar et al [9] used the SST turbulence model for simulating the flow around the S809 and the S830 airfoils and calculating the lift, the drag and the pressure coefficients, and the lift to drag ratio.…”

Numerical Investigation of Multi Airfoil Effect on Performance Increase of Wind Turbine

“…With the increasing power harnessed by wind turbine, the size and weight of the blades also increase [1]. The majority of the airfoils in use on horizontal-axis wind turbines were initially developed for aircraft but, with the development of the wind turbine industry, more efficient airfoil especially only for wind turbine has been designed for last 30 years [2]. Airfoil design and wind tunnel test is complex and requires significant expertise because it has a very time consuming process [3].…”