Airfoil Optimization for a Wind Turbine Operating in a Particle-Laden Environment

Abstract

Dust may be challenging to the blades of wind turbines deployed in the harsh environment of the Sahara. In this paper, the airfoil sections of a wind turbine have been customized for low sensitivity to surface roughness at the wind conditions prevailing in Hurghada—Egypt to avoid serious power degradation. To this end, a two-dimensional a computational model is developed using ANSYS-FLUENT 15.0 to understand the distinguishing features that govern the specific behavior of NACA-63-215 (root section) and NACA-63-415 airfoils (midspan and tip sections) with respect to dust deposition and sand erosion. Subsequently, a two-objective genetic algorithm is developed in MATLAB 16.0 and used to customize the airfoil geometry, enhancing the lift-to-drag ratio while simultaneously minimizing the deposition and erosion rates. The whole optimization process is realized through coupling MATLAB 16.0 with ANSYS-FLUENT 15.0 via the ICEM meshing tool to predict the optimum blade shape based on its aerodynamic performance in a dust-loaded environment. The optimization process enhanced the aerodynamic performance for the aforementioned airfoils under particle laden conditions with up to 38.34% higher lift-to-drag coefficients ratio in addition to 70 % and 99.267 % drop in dust deposition and sand erosion, repectively.

Site-specific considerations for aerodynamic design upgrade of a wind turbine operating in a saharan environment

“…The choice of 3 months was guided by a previous study by Hassan et al 54 who deemed it reasonable time span to observe a reasonable change in the profile while maintaining the cost effectiveness of the simulation. According to a previous study by Hossam and Diab, 55 deposition dominates at the root section r = R < 0:3 given the slower air speed with a lesser impact in the outward radial direction along the blade. Conversely, erosion dominates for the outboard sections of the blade due to the faster air speeds, with a lesser impact on the inner most sections.…”

“…Those findings highlight the significance of optimizing the airfoil sections with low sensitivity to surface roughness for wind turbines to be deployed in Saharan environments to avoid additional maintenance costs and investment losses due to shut downs. 59,60 This is particularly relevant to many countries in the MENA region which adopt renewable energy technologies to meet their developmental needs while simultaneously combating climate change. Wind turbines installed in these countries have to process significant amounts of wind loaded with dust and sand particles.…”