Development of low-noise drag-type vertical wind turbines

Sanghyeon Kim and Cheolung Cheong

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 79, issue C, 199-208

Abstract: In this study, the aerodynamic noise characteristics of Savonius wind turbines were investigated using hybrid computational aero-acoustics techniques, and low-noise designs were proposed based on the understanding of the noise generation mechanism. First, the flow field around the turbine was analyzed in detail by solving three-dimensional unsteady incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations using computational fluid dynamics techniques. Then, the aerodynamic noise radiating from the wind turbine was predicted using the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings equation with the obtained flow field information. Two distinct harmonic noise components—the blade passing frequency (BPF) and harmonics with a fundamental frequency that is much higher than the BPF—were identified in the predicted noise spectrum. The origin of the higher harmonic components was found to be related to vortex shedding from the rotating turbine. Based on this finding, the proposed low-noise design for Savonius wind turbines uses S-shaped blades. S-shaped blades were found to reduce the noise levels of Savonius wind turbines by up to 2.7 dB.

Keywords: Aerodynamic noise; Drag-type wind turbine; Low-noise wind turbine; Savonius wind turbine; Vertical-axis wind turbine; Vortex shedding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:79:y:2015:i:c:p:199-208

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.09.047

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