A Dynamic Rotor Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine with a Blade Transitioning Capability

Elie Antar, Amne El Cheikh and Michel Elkhoury
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Elie Antar: School of Engineering, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 36, Byblos 1102, Lebanon
Amne El Cheikh: School of Engineering, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 36, Byblos 1102, Lebanon
Michel Elkhoury: School of Engineering, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 36, Byblos 1102, Lebanon

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: This work presents an optimized design of a dynamic rotor vertical-axis wind turbine (DR VAWT) which maximizes the operational tip-speed ratio (TSR) range and the average power coefficient (C p ) value while maintaining a low cut-in wind velocity. The DR VAWT is capable of mimicking a Savonius rotor during the start-up phase and transitioning into a Darrieus one with increasing rotor radius at higher TSRs. The design exploits the fact that with increasing rotor radius, the TSR value increases, where the peak power coefficient is attained. A 2.5D improved delayed detached eddy simulation (IDDES) approach was adopted in order to optimize the dynamic rotor design, where results showed that the generated blades’ trajectories can be readily replicated by simple mechanisms in reality. A thorough sensitivity analysis was conducted on the generated optimized blades’ trajectories, where results showed that they were insensitive to values of the Reynolds number. The performance of the DR VAWT turbine with its blades following different trajectories was contrasted with the optimized turbine, where the influence of the blade pitch angle was highlighted. Moreover, a cross comparison between the performance of the proposed design and that of the hybrid Savonius–Darrieus one found in the literature was carefully made. Finally, the effect of airfoil thickness on the performance of the optimized DR VAWT was thoroughly analyzed.

Keywords: dynamic rotor; vertical-axis wind turbine; Savonius–Darrieus variable configuration (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: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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