Effect of Pitch Angle on Structural and Aerodynamic Characteristics of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) Using Leading-Edge Protuberance Blades

Karthikvel Elangovan and S. Nadaraja Pillai ()
Additional contact information
Karthikvel Elangovan: Turbulence & Flow Control Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to Be University, Thanjavur 613041, Tamil Nadu, India
S. Nadaraja Pillai: Turbulence & Flow Control Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, SASTRA Deemed to Be University, Thanjavur 613041, Tamil Nadu, India

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-28

Abstract: An experimental investigation was carried out to understand the effects of LEP (leading-edge protuberance) blades on the structural characteristics of VAWTs. A series of experiments were performed on VAWTs with straight and LEP blades for a wide range of wind velocity (6 m/s to 20 m/s) and pitch angles (−20° to 20°), and the structural excitations on the VAWT structure were measured using a triaxial accelerometer in each case. The raw acceleration data were extensively processed in the time and frequency domains to identify the variation in structural excitation caused by the unsteady wind and aerodynamic loads on the VAWT structure. Understanding the aerodynamic changes and their impact on structural characteristics is essential. The current study examines how LEP influences the structural excitation of VAWTs. However, a great deal of aerodynamic variation was observed for the LEP blades, so the straight blades of the VAWT were replaced with various modified LEP blades, for which a similar set of experiments was carried out. The study presents a better performance (self-starting, stall-mitigating) for VAWTs with LEP 3 and 2 blades, with a significant reduction in the excitation of loads due to wind load and the changes in aerodynamics observed in the along- and across-wind directions.

Keywords: dynamic stall; VAWT (vertical-axis wind turbine); leading-edge protuberance; energy reduction index; vibration; passive flow control; condition monitoring; dynamic testing (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: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/2/286/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/2/286/ (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:18:y:2025:i:2:p:286-:d:1564552

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 ().