Numerical Analysis of a Rotating Micro Straight-Wing VAWT Model for Engineering Design Educations

Abstract

In this report, numerical analyses of performances of prototype Mg-alloy micro vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) were conducted. It has three wings with usual NACA0018 wing section. Typical Reynolds number based on the wind speed and the wing chord length were set around 3.3×10 4 with consideration of use as a portable-type micro VAWT system for engineering educations. In such low Reynolds number cases, somewhat different way of design would be required because of flow separation and reattachment, short bubbles etc. We also examined a torque variation generated from the wings using 3-D unsteady CFD analysis and compared the results and flow patterns for higher performance.

Experiment / simulation integrated shape optimization using variable fidelity Kriging model approach

“…The latter has attracted much more attention in recent years, whose axis of rotation is perpendicular to the main flow. Many experimental/numerical investigations have been performed in the literature (Seki, 1991, Ferreira et al, 2009, Howell et al, 2010, Carrigan et al, 2012, Greenblatt et al, 2012, Bah et al, 2013, Wakashima, et al, 2013, Firdaus et al, 2015, Yamazaki and Arakawa, 2015. The VAWT has an advantage over the HAWT in the flexibility about the direction of the main flow.…”

Inexpensive airfoil shape optimization for vertical axis wind turbine and its validation

“…The latter has attracted much more attention in recent years, whose axis of rotation is perpendicular to the main flow. Many experimental/numerical investigations have been performed in the literature (Bah, et al, 2013, Carrigan, et al, 2012, Ferreira, et al, 2009, Greenblatt, et al, 2012, Han, et al, 2013, Howell, et al, 2010, Seki, 1991, Wakashima, et al, 2012, Wakashima, et al, 2013. The VAWT has an advantage over the HAWT in the flexibility about the direction of the main flow.…”