Scale-resolving CFD modeling of a thick wind turbine airfoil with application of vortex generators: Validation and sensitivity analyses

Riccardo Mereu, Stefano Passoni and Fabio Inzoli

Energy, 2019, vol. 187, issue C

Abstract: Wind farms of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) are increasing as number and size of single turbines and the blades with a degraded surface finish are studied as cause for decreasing of aerodynamic performance. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of passive flow control devices like vortex generators is hence gaining importance to evaluate the increase in aerodynamic performance of degraded blades. This work is aimed at improving the state-of-the-art of RANS modeling of thick blades such as DU97-W-300 profile in clean configuration or equipped with VGs. The study is based on CFD scale-resolving methods (DES and SDES) to model the post-stall behavior at high Reynolds number. Furthermore, exhaustive sensitivity analyses are performed to assess the influence of time integration duration, grid span-wise resolution and domain width on the accuracy of the simulations. The results show that scale-resolving methods mark a significant step-ahead in stall simulation with respect to RANS models. Stall angle is captured with a better accuracy and the stall mechanism is reproduced in a more rigorous way. Final results present an average error of +11% on lift and −5% on drag coefficient for the clean profile and +1%/-10% respectively for the profile equipped with VGs.

Keywords: HAWT; DU97W300; VGs; DES; SDES; Stall (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:187:y:2019:i:c:s0360544219316597

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.115969

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