On the Investigation of the Effect of Tower and Hub Exclusion on the Numerical Results of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

In order to construct a 3D rotor model, periodicity and Multiple Reference Frame (MRF) strategies were applied to address full Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that incorporate the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. A simulation model was run to examine the power of the wind turbines, both including and excluding the hub and tower. The purpose of this was to identify an approach that would decrease the computational time cost of wind turbine simulation. Firstly, a full-scale horizontal axis wind turbine simulation was carried out, and subsequently, comparisons were made with the results of the wind tunnel experiment utilizing the K-omega SST and Sparlat Allmaras viscosity models. The results were compared to determine the optimum model with the lowest simulation time and highest accuracy to the experimental results. Following this, the complete models’ simulation was compared to the model excluding the hub and tower in order to check the disparity in the results of the two. Additionally, to ascertain the computational cost saving, the ratio of the two simulation times was established. The findings show that the two models produce results that correspond well to the experimental results, and that the power coefficient had a greater value for the complete model than the simple model. Furthermore, it was found that the power coefficient values of the full model have significantly higher levels of similarity to the experimental values. The Sparlat Allmaras and K-omega SST viscosity models returned error percentages of 0.52% and 12.6% respectively. For the partial model utilizing the same computer device, a 5.7% error rate was recorded, with a computational time saving of approximately 34%.