Effect on Torque and Thrust of the Pointed Tip Shape of a Wind Turbine Blade

Kyoungsoo Lee, Shrabanti Roy, Ziaul Huque, Raghava Kommalapati and SangEul Han
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Kyoungsoo Lee: Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Incohen Co., Seoul 05510, Korea
Shrabanti Roy: Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
Ziaul Huque: Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
Raghava Kommalapati: Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
SangEul Han: School of Architecture, Department of Architectural Engineering, Inha University, Inchoen 402-751, Korea

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: This paper presents the effect of the tip shape of a wind turbine blade on aerodynamic forces, including the effects of separation, transition and stall. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Phase-VI wind turbine blade was used, in which the shape of the tip was modified to a pointed tip. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were employed for the analysis and the results were compared with the original NREL blade CFD and experimental data using ANSYS CFX (Ansys Inc., Delaware, PA, USA). To predict the separation and separation-induced transition on both near wall and far away, the shear-stress-transport (SST) Gamma-Theta turbulent model was used. The stall onset of a 20° angle of attack and its effects were also analyzed and presented. The value of torque with the pointed tip blade was found to be 3%–8% higher than the original NREL blade showing the benefit of the pointed tip. Normal force coefficient is lower at the tip for the pointed tip blade, which results in lower deformation of the blade. It was found that the pointed-tip blade is more efficient in terms of generating torque than the original NREL Phase-VI blade in the dynamic stall region of 10–15 m/s wind speeds.

Keywords: wind energy; wind turbine blade; pointed tip blade; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Phase VI; shear-stress-transport (SST) Gamma-Theta turbulent model; separation and transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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