Novel INVELOX design with unique intake to improve wind capturing mechanism

Abstract

Renewable energy sources, such as wind energy, have been utilized to mitigate climate change. INVELOX is a ducted wind turbine (DWT) consisting of an omnidirectional intake and a Venturi section. The INVELOX original design was found to have multiple points of high friction points that restrict the wind flow inside the INVELOX. In addition, intake in the original design allows the wind stream to escape the INVELOX, thus, limiting its performance. An improved INVELOX model was developed to overcome high wind friction points in the original design and to overcome INVELOX intake limitations by a novel intake mechanism. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the improved model in a similar setup to the original design. The simulation methodology is divided into three main stages: validation, analysis, and improvement of the original design. Results showed that the novel intake design improved the average wind speed at the Venturi section to 18.6 m/s from the initial 6.7 m/s wind stream. This performance was also maintained at higher wind speeds, unlike the original INVELOX design.