Numerical Simulation of the Effects of Blade–Arm Connection Gap on Vertical–Axis Wind Turbine Performance

Yutaka Hara (), Ayato Miyashita and Shigeo Yoshida
Additional contact information
Yutaka Hara: Advanced Mechanical and Electronic System Research Center (AMES), Faculty of Engineering, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori 680-8552, Japan
Ayato Miyashita: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori 680-8552, Japan
Shigeo Yoshida: Institute of Ocean Energy (IOES), Saga University, Saga 840-8502, Japan

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Many vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) require arms, which generally provide aerodynamic resistance, to connect the main blades to the rotating shaft. Three–dimensional numerical simulations were conducted to clarify the effects of a gap placed at the blade–arm connection portion on VAWT performance. A VAWT with two straight blades (diameter: 0.75 m, height: 0.5 m) was used as the calculation model. Two horizontal arms were assumed to be connected to the blade of the model with or without a gap. A cylindrical rod with a diameter of 1 or 5 mm was installed in the gap, and its length varied from 10 to 30 mm. The arm cross section has the same airfoil shape (NACA 0018) as the main blade; however, the chord length is half (0.04 m) that of the blade. The simulation shows that the power of the VAWT with gaps is higher than that of the gapless VAWT. The longer gap length tends to decrease the power, and increasing the diameter of the connecting rod amplifies this decreasing tendency. Providing a short gap at the blade–arm connection and decreasing the cross–sectional area of the connecting member is effective in increasing VAWT power.

Keywords: vertical–axis wind turbine; arm; gap; computational fluid dynamics; three–dimensional effects; drag; surface pressure; wall shear stress (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6925/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6925/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:19:p:6925-:d:1252535

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().