Abstract
The principal objective of this work was to investigate the 3D flow field around a multi-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) rotor and to investigate its performance characteristics. The aerodynamic performance of this novel rotor design was evaluated by means of a Computational Fluid Dynamics commercial package. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations were selected to model the physics of the incompressible Newtonian fluid around the blades. The Shear Stress Transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model was chosen for the assessment of the 3D flow behavior as it had widely used in other HAWT studies. The pressure-based simulation was done on a model representing one-ninth of the rotor using a 40-degree periodicity in a single moving reference frame system. Analyzing the wake flow behavior over a wide range of wind speeds provided a clear vision of this novel rotor configuration. From the analysis, it was determined that the flow becomes accelerated in outer wake region downstream of the rotor and by placing a multi-bladed rotor with a larger diameter behind the forward rotor resulted in an acceleration of this wake flow which resulted in an increase the overall power output of the wind machine.
Highlights
The escalation of the global energy demand has led countries to consider renewable energy sources more seriously
It was determined that the flow becomes accelerated in outer wake region downstream of the rotor and by placing a multi-bladed rotor with a larger diameter behind the forward rotor resulted in an acceleration of this wake flow which resulted in an increase the overall power output of the wind machine
The tip speed ratio of the turbine was kept constant at 0.7 which historically results in the highest achievable power coefficient for the American multi-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine
Summary
The escalation of the global energy demand has led countries to consider renewable energy sources more seriously. The 2019 report of the International Renewable Energy Agency claims that the cost of renewable energy technologies will continue to decline throughout the decade [2], and that solar and wind power are the two most affordable energy solutions for markets worldwide. The Annual Energy Outlook 2020 predicts that wind and solar energy would increase to 80 percent of the total renewable energy produced by 2050 and the growth of renewable energy would take place in all parts of the U.S with the West and Mid-Continent areas experiencing the biggest increase in energy production from wind [3]. The steady advancements in wind energy technologies, such as rotor designs and manufacturing processes, have caused a reduction of the levelized cost of wind produced electricity which has resulted in its growth in the global energy market [2]
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