Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Steady and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Curved Deforming Blades

Abstract

Vertical-axis wind turbines’ simpler design and low center of gravity make them ideal for floating wind applications. However, efficient design optimization of floating systems requires fast and accurate models. Low-fidelity vertical-axis turbine aerodynamic models, including double multiple streamtube and actuator cylinder theory, were created during the 1980s. Commercial development of vertical-axis turbines all but ceased in the 1990s until around 2010 when interest resurged for floating applications. Despite the age of these models, the original assumptions (2-D, rigid, steady, straight bladed) have not been revisited in full. When the current low-fidelity formulations are applied to modern turbines in the unsteady domain, aerodynamic load errors nearing 50% are found, consistent with prior literature. However, a set of steady and unsteady modifications that remove the majority of error is identified, limiting it near 5%. This paper shows how to reformulate the steady models to allow for unsteady inputs including turbulence, deforming blades, and variable rotational speed. A new unsteady approximation that increases numerical speed by is also presented. Combined, these modifications enable full-turbine unsteady simulations with accuracy comparable to higher-fidelity vortex methods, but over faster.