The dynamic stall dilemma for vertical-axis wind turbines

Abstract

Vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWT) are excellent candidates to complement traditional wind turbines and increase the total wind energy capacity. Development of VAWT has been hampered by their low efficiency and structural unreliability, which are related to the occurrence of dynamic stall. Dynamic stall consists of the formation, growth, and shedding of large-scale vortices, followed by massive flow separation. The vortex shedding is detrimental to the turbine's efficiency and causes significant load fluctuations that jeopardise the turbine's structural integrity. We present a comprehensive experimental characterisation of dynamic stall on a VAWT blade including time-resolved load and velocity field measurements. Particular attention is dedicated to the dilemma faced by VAWT to either operate at lower tip-speed ratios to maximise their peak aerodynamic performance but experience dynamic stall, or to avoid dynamic stall at the cost of reducing their peak performance. Based on the results, we map turbine operating conditions to one of three regimes: deep stall, light stall, and no stall. The light stall regime offers VAWT the best compromise in the dynamic stall dilemma as it yields positive tangential forces during the upwind and downwind rotation and reduces load transients by 75% compared to the deep stall regime.