Numerical Investigation on Flow Control of a Small Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Using Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Actuator

Abstract

This research aims to numerically investigate the efficiency of the plasma actuator in a small wind turbine. The studies were conducted on a domestic wind turbine with a diameter of 1.93 m and the Suzen-Huang model was employed to simulate the DBD plasma actuator. In this research, first, a wind turbine without the plasma actuator was simulated at different tip speed ratios. Then, the DBD plasma actuator was activated at a tip speed ratio of 4.35, and changes in the power output, torque distribution, and surface streamlines were studied. The results indicate with an increase in the power of the plasma actuator, the separation point moved away from the leading edge, the span-wise flows were reduced, and the turbine power output increased. The performance of the plasma actuator is varied along the wind turbine blade length. For the radii r/R=0.4-0.95, a difference in the generated torque can be observed for active and inactive plasma modes, and the plasma actuator did not significantly affect the power output in other sections. The maximum increase in torque due to the plasma actuator has occurred at the radii r/R=0.5-0.7. In these regions, the distance between the separation point and the plasma actuator location is about 0.2 times the chord length of the airfoil.