Guidelines for the computational domain size on an urban-scale VAWT

Abstract

Focusing on the H-type vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) widely used in urban, the SST k - ω turbulence model was selected to establish a two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model, the moment coefficient (Cm), and power coefficient (Cp) was taken as the evaluation indicators. The CFD model was used in different domain sizes. The simulation results under the sizes were used to investigate the effect of the computational domain size on the numerical simulation results of the aerodynamic performance of the VAWT. Furthermore, a distance from the turbine center to the domain inlet and outlet of 10D (D: diameter of the turbine) each, a domain width of 10D and a diameter of the rotating core of 1.5D are found to be safe choices to minimize the effects of blockage and uncertainty in the boundary conditions on the results. It provides a reference for the selection of the domain size when CFD simulation is implemented in a vertical axis turbine to get its prediction of the performance in the future accurately.