Effect of solidity on aerodynamic forces around straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine by wind tunnel experiments (depending on number of blades)

Li, Qing’an, Takao Maeda, Yasunari Kamada, Junsuke Murata, Kento Shimizu, Tatsuhiko Ogasawara, Alisa Nakai and Takuji Kasuya

Renewable Energy, 2016, vol. 96, issue PA, 928-939

Abstract: The prediction of aerodynamic forces around straight-bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) is important for wind turbine applications. This paper focused on evaluating the aerodynamic forces acting on a single blade, depending on the different numbers of blades in wind tunnel experiments. In this study, numbers of blades were from two to five and the cross-sectional shape of the tested airfoil was a NACA0021. Firstly, the power coefficient was measured by a torque meter and a six-component balance. Secondly, pressures acting on the surface of rotor blades were measured during rotation by multiport pressure devices. Then, the evolutions of normal coefficient, tangential coefficient and lift-to-drag ratio CL/CD, which were obtained from pressure distributions, were discussed. Finally, the power coefficients calculated by pressure distributions were compared with the experiment data of the torque meter and the six-component balance. The results showed that the pressure difference substantially decreased with the increase of solidity. In addition, the values of six-component balance and torque meter showed smaller values than those calculated by pressure distributions. In words, these results provided theoretical significance towards the development of a simple design for straight-bladed VAWT.

Keywords: Wind turbine; Pressure distributions; Numbers of blades; Six-component balance; Wind tunnel experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:96:y:2016:i:pa:p:928-939

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2016.05.054

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