Effect of Aspect Ratio on Aerodynamic Performance of Archimedes Spiral Wind Turbine

Abstract

This study describes the effect of aspect ratio on the aerodynamic performance of small-scale Archimedes spiral-wind-turbine. The computational approach was used to predict the aerodynamic performance of the scaled-down rotor blades. Aspect ratio is defined by the ratio of turbine diameter to its length. The present study includes five different models for three different aspect ratios 1.5, 1.25 and 1.0 with forward and backward elongation. The computational study was carried out using the ANSYS-CFX 19 software for a steady incompressible flow. The performance parameters of the wind turbine, which are power and torque coefficients, were explored for different aspect ratios. This was carried out for wind speed from 5 to 12 m/s with an interval of 1 m/s. In order to save computational time, the computational models were 1/10 down-scaled of the 0.5 kW class which has 1.5 m-diameter. In order to validate the results of the computational simulation, the present results were compared to previous research results of others. Obviously, the results highlight that the less aspect ratio with forward elongation, the more resulting power coefficient.