Numerical Investigation of Aerodynamic Performance of a Three-Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

Abstract

As a pollution free source of energy, wind is among the most popular and fastest growing forms of electricity generation in the world. Compared to their horizontal axis counterparts, vertical axis wind turbines have lagged considerably in development and implementation. The University of Virginia Rotating Machinery and Controls laboratory has undertaken a systematic review of vertical axis wind turbine design in order to address this research gap, starting with establishment of a methodology for vertical axis wind turbine simulation using ANSYS CFX. A 2D model of a recently published Durham University vertical axis wind turbine was generated. Full transient CFD simulations using the moving mesh capability available in ANSYS-CFX were run from turbine start-up to operating speed and compared with the experimental data in order to validate the technique. A scalable k-ε turbulence model transient CFD simulation has been demonstrated to accurately predict vertical axis wind turbine operating speed within 12% error using a two-dimensional structured mesh in conjunction with a carefully specified series of boundary conditions.