Blade design effect on Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine performance: Experimental and numerical evaluations

Abstract

Recently, many wind turbines have been used to extract power from wind, such as Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine (ASWT). In the current work, experimental and numerical studies are performed to elucidate the effect of the blades' thickness and the blade angles on the performance of ASWT. ANSYS Fluent solver obtains numerical results after validation with the current experimental results. The experimental work is achieved on a conventional ASWT with a blade thickness of 3.5 mm and blade angles of 30°, 45°, and 60° for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd blade. The wind velocity values used are 6, 8, 10, and 12 m/s. Results revealed that the best rotor blade angles of the modified ASWT were 25°, 50°, and 60°, respectively. At V = 10 m/s, the maximum CP of conventional and modified ASWT is 24.3% and 28.6% at TSR of 1.5 and 2, respectively. The percentage increase in maximum CP compared with the conventional ASWT equals 17.7%. At TSR = 2, The CP of conventional and modified ASWT at V = 10 m/s is 23.3% and 28.6%, respectively with percentage increase equal to 22.75%. Besides, maximum CP and the operating range are increased with decreasing the blade thickness.