Effects of Solidity on Aerodynamic Performance of H-Type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

In order to study the effects of solidity on aerodynamic performance of H-type vertical axis wind turbine(H-VAWT), the mechanical model of H-VAWT was established, numerical investigations were implemented for the different solidity by changing the radius, chord length and blade number. As the result shows, the H-VAWT with a lower solidity will obtain the maximum Cp at a high tip speed ratio and the maximum value will be larger, while the H-VAWT with a higher solidity has better starting performance but the value of Cp is smaller. For small H-VAWT, the suitable solidity range is 0.2∼1.28; for large H-VAWT, the suitable solidity range is 0.2∼0.6. The effects of changing the radius and blade number on aerodynamic performance are almost the same, the effect of changing the chord length on aerodynamic performance is different from the above two methods and the value of Cp increases with the increase of the solidity. Changing the chord length can increase the peak value of wind energy utilization rate, while the increase of the blade number will reduce the peak value of wind energy utilization rate.