Effect of airfoil profile on aerodynamic performance and economic assessment of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines

Abstract

This research focuses on the effects of the asymmetric airfoil profiles on aerodynamic performance and economic evolution of a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) at different blade heights, solidities, and tip speed ratios (TSR or λ). The aerodynamic performance of six asymmetric airfoils, S809, S814, RISØ-A1-24, Du 93-W-210, FFA-W3-241, and FX66-S196-V1, was calculated using double multiple-stream tube (DMST) theory and blade element methods for determination of their performance for tip speed ratios from 1 to 12, and solidities of 0.2–0.6, were considered for this study. All calculations focused on the Khaf area (rural zone) in Iran and considered two heights: 10 m and 40 m. To verify the performance of the developed code, results were compared with experimental power coefficient data for NACA0012 airfoil. For FFA-W3-241 airfoil, maximum power coefficient was obtained at solidity of 0.5 and tip-speed ratio of 4. This aerodynamic excellence resulted in 22.4% and 21.9% increase in annual energy production at hub heights (h) of 10 m and 40 m, respectively, while keeping the total investment costs constant. Moreover, the ratio of wind-generated electric power sales to the total investment cost was found to be 4.33 (0.15/0.0346) for 15 years of operation.