The Aerodynamic Performance of the Small-Scale Wind Turbine Blade with NACA0012 Airfoil

Abstract

Small-scale wind turbine (SSWT) has been the subject of intensive research to complement its large-scale counterpart especially for usage in low wind speed regions. Two important issues that plague the development of the SSWT are its low in power coefficient especially due to the low Reynold’s number () condition that it’s operating in and the start-up difficulty that it faces. In this paper, the blade element momentum theory (BEMT) has been used to analyse a small-scale wind turbine having 3 m diameter. The airfoil used is the NACA 0012. The simplified experimental based equations have been used to determine the coefficient of lift, and coefficient of drag, of the airfoil. A developed MATLAB’s code applying the basic BEMT method is used. The results of aerodynamic performances including power coefficient, power and thrust are given as a function of wind speed, tip speed ratio (TSR) and Reynold’s number. It shows that at the minimum wind speed of 3 m/s, the wind turbine can have power coefficient of 43% but to produce 600 W of power that is required for total needs of electrical consumption of a household, the wind speed needed is 5m/s which is reachable for low wind speed region.