Analyzing Effects of Camber and Its Position on Various Parameters in NACA Designated Aerofoil Blades Under Dynamic Similarity

Abstract

As the world`s current conventional energy resources are going to extinct after a few years, so the world is emphasizing more on the alternative resources of energy and in that process researchers have to move on toward non-traditional energy resources which mainly consists of solar and wind energy. Wind speeds can achieve values of 10–12 m/s at windy spots. These high wind speeds can be used to harvest energy by installing typically three blades of a wind turbine. The blade geometry is made such that it generates lift from the wind and thus rotates. The basic characteristic which defines the power harnessing capability of a wind turbine is their lift and drag characteristics which mainly depend on the geometry, i.e., profile of turbine blade. Here, different NACA 4 digit aerofoil profiles based on their lift and drag force coefficient have been compared under dynamic similarity, i.e., keeping Reynolds number as constant by using ANSYS workbench 14.0. As it is known that symmetrical blade profiles do not produce any lift at strike angle of 0°, but cambered blades do have some lift even at 0° strike angle. Thus, finding the values of lift and drag force coefficient by two means: (1) Varying camber percentage and keeping its position as constant (NACA0015, NACA2415, NACA3415, NACA4415, NACA5415), (2) varying camber position but keeping camber percentage as constant (NACA0015, NACA4215, NACA4315, NACA4415, NACA4515) at different angles of attack of 0°, 2°, and 4°. In this paper, all these eight NACA 4 digit series profiles have been compared to find out the profile which possess better aerodynamic characteristics.