Design and Optimization of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines Using QBlade

Amani I Altmimi,Ahmed Alhamadani,Jenan S Sherza,Oday Ibraheem Abdullah,Mustafa Alaskari

doi:10.3390/asi4040074

Abstract

Wind energy is considered one of the most important sources of renewable energy in the world, because it contributes to reducing the negative effects on the environment. The most important types of wind turbines are horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines. This work presents the full details of design for vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) and how to find the optimal values of necessary factors. Additionally, the results shed light on the efficiency and performance of the VAWT under different working conditions. It was taken into consideration the variety of surrounding environmental conditions (such as density and viscosity of fluid, number of elements of the blade, etc.) to simulate the working of vertical wind turbines under different working conditions. Furthermore, the effect of the design factors was investigated such as the number and size of the blades on the behavior and performance of VAWT. It was assumed that the vertical wind blade works in different sites of Iraq. QBlade software (Version 8) was used to achieve the calculations and optimization processes to obtain the optimal design of vertical axis wind turbines that is suitable for the promising sites. The results proved that accurate results can be obtained by using QBlade software.

Highlights

There are many researchers from the academic and industry sectors that have turned their attention to developing the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), where the main advantage of the VAWTs is capturing the wind from any direction
A new idea has been introduced to increase the production of clean energy, by installation of the small power vertical axis wind turbines on the roof of high constructions
The produced power by the wind turbine is determined based on the power coefficient (CP ) including the tip speed ratio (λ) and pitch angle (β) parameters

Summary

Introduction

There are many researchers from the academic and industry sectors that have turned their attention to developing the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), where the main advantage of the VAWTs is capturing the wind from any direction. It was found that each shape of the aerodynamic and aspect ratio has a significant impact on the output power These results encouraged more researchers to investigate in this area to enhance the performance and output power of the vertical axis wind turbine [3]. The wide range of results and the high accuracy led to making QBlade software to be a significant design tool to analyze different kinds of wind turbines [4]. This software was used to study the effect of thickness of the airfoil blade on the behavior and performance of the vertical axis wind turbines.

Geometric

Theoretical Background

Power Generation Calculations

Results and Discussions

6.6.Conclusions