Optimization of the power output of a vertical axis wind turbine augmented with a flat plate deflector

Abstract

Power performance of a straight blade vertical axis wind turbine augmented with a flat plate deflector was studied. A design of experiment method based on Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal array was employed to optimize the position, orientation, and dimensions of the deflector. Five parameters, including the horizontal distance of the top edge of the deflector from the axis of rotation of the turbine (X), the vertical distance of the top edge of the deflector from the bottom of the blades (W), the length of the deflector (L), the width of the deflector (W), and the angle of the deflector with respect to the axis of rotation of the turbine (φ) were investigated. 16 three-dimensional numerical experiments were conducted to assess the effect of theses parameters on the power output of the wind turbine. Analyzing the results showed that the level of the influence of these five parameters can be ordered as φ>W>X>Y>L, which means that φ has the strongest impact on the performance of the wind turbine and L has the weakest impact. Utilizing the deflector with optimum parameters increased the efficiency of the wind turbine by 16.42% compare to the bare turbine.