Analytical, Numerical and Experimental Performance Prediction of a Model-Sized Wind Turbine

Abstract

The present work focuses on the comparison of the capabilities of Blade Element Momentum Theory, with and without the high induction factor value model and Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling in relation to experimental measurements of the power coefficient for a model-sized horizontal axial wind turbine. Initially, an analytical investigation was performed to obtain the power coefficient curve. Furthermore, three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed, where a lot of effort was devoted to the preparation of a low y+ structured mesh. Analytical and numerical results of the power coefficient were compared with experimental results, which were obtained with our own conducted experiments in the wind tunnel. The most significant conclusions are that the classic BEM method deviates from measured data in the entire range of tip speed ratios, the BEM method with Spera correction predicts a significantly better agreement with experimental measurements compared to the classic BEM method, especially the part where the power coefficient decreases and finally that CFD computations can accurately predict the performance of wind turbines and compute the flow around an aerofoil of the blade.