Wind-Tunnel Experiments on the Interactions among a Pair/Trio of Closely Spaced Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

Yoshifumi Jodai () and Yutaka Hara
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Yoshifumi Jodai: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kagawa College, 355 Chokushi, Takamatsu 761-8058, Japan
Yutaka Hara: Faculty of Engineering, Tottori University, 4-101 Koyama-Minami, Tottori 680-8552, Japan

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-27

Abstract: To elucidate the wind-direction dependence of the rotor performance in closely spaced vertical-axis wind turbines, wind-tunnel experiments were performed at a uniform wind velocity. In the experiments, a pair/trio of three-dimensional printed model turbines with a diameter of D = 50 mm was used. The experiments were performed systematically by applying incremental adjustments to the rotor gap g and rotational direction of each rotor and by changing the wind direction. For tandem layouts, the rotational speed of the downwind rotor is 75–80% that of an isolated rotor, even at g / D = 10. For the average rotational speed of the rotor pair, an origin-symmetrical and a line-symmetrical distribution are observed in the co-rotating and inverse-rotating configurations, respectively, thereby demonstrating the wind-direction dependence for the rotor pair. The inverse-rotating trio configuration yields a higher average rotational speed than the co-rotating trio configuration for any rotor spacing under the ideal bidirectional wind conditions. The maximum average rotational speed should be obtained for a wind direction of θ = 0° in the inverse-rotating trio configuration. The wind-direction dependence of the rotational speeds of the three turbines was explained via flow visualization using a smoke-wire method and velocity field study using two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics.

Keywords: vertical-axis wind turbine; wind-tunnel experiment; pair of turbines; trio of turbines; closely spaced arrangement; wind-direction dependence; rotational speed; power coefficient (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
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