A computational assessment of the aerodynamic performance of a tilted Darrieus wind turbine

Abstract The aerodynamic performance of a Darrieus wind turbine operating with the rotation axis tilted with respect to the free-stream wind speed is investigated in this paper. An Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is proposed in order to provide wind turbine manufacturers with a reliable simulation tool to forecast the power conversion characteristics of vertical axis wind turbine prototypes that operate in tilted conditions. The outputs of the model are compared against experimental performance of a non-tilted rotor corrected to the standard sea level conditions. Two different tilted configurations are studied (i.e., a tilt angle of 10 ° and 20 ° ) and the aerodynamic performance is presented in terms of the mechanical power production and the power coefficient. A sensible decrease in the power production is observed for increasing tilt angles. Comprehensive physical interpretations of the results are provided, considering also the predictions of a methodology based on semi-empirical methods.

[1]  M. Raciti Castelli,et al.  Preliminary Evaluation of Feasibility for Wind Energy Production on Offshore Extraction Platforms , 2012 .

[2]  L. Ferrari,et al.  Blade Design Criteria to Compensate the Flow Curvature Effects in H-Darrieus Wind Turbines , 2014 .

[3]  R. E. Sheldahl.  Comparison of field and wind-tunnel Darrieus wind-turbine data , 1981 .

[4]  M. Worstell.  Aerodynamic performance of the 17-metre-diameter Darrieus wind turbine , 1979 .

[5]  Giovanni Ferrara,et al.  An Improved Model for the Performance Estimation of an H-Darrieus Wind Turbine in Skewed Flow , 2012 .

[6]  I. Paraschivoiu,et al.  Double-multiple streamtube model for Darrieus in turbines , 1981 .

[7]  I. Paraschivoiu,et al.  Double multiple streamtube model with recent improvements , 1983 .

[8]  Georgios A. Skrimpas,et al.  Advantages on monitoring wind turbine nacelle oscillation. , 2015 .

[9]  L. Vita.  Offshore Floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbines with Rotating Platform , 2011 .

[10]  B. F. Blackwell,et al.  Wind tunnel performance data for the Darrieus wind turbine with NACA 0012 blades , 1976 .

[11]  Ernesto Benini,et al.  The Darrieus wind turbine: Proposal for a new performance prediction model based on CFD , 2011 .

[12]  Ismet Baran,et al.  Design Optimization of a 5 MW Floating Offshore Vertical-axis Wind Turbine , 2013 .

[13]  G. Reis,et al.  Practical approximations to a troposkien by straight-line and circular-arc segments , 1975 .

[14]  Barnes W. McCormick,et al.  Aerodynamics, Aeronautics and Flight Mechanics , 1979 .

[15]  Ernesto Benini,et al.  Modeling Strategy and Numerical Validation for a Darrieus Vertical Axis Micro-Wind Turbine , 2010 .

[16]  Ernesto Benini,et al.  Effect of Blade Inclination Angle on a Darrieus Wind Turbine , 2012 .

[17]  R. D. McConnell,et al.  An experimental 200 kW vertical axis wind turbine for the Magdalen Islands , 1976 .

[18]  R. E. Sheldahl,et al.  Aerodynamic performance of a 5-metre-diameter Darrieus turbine with extruded aluminum NACA-0015 blades , 1980 .

[19]  Helge Aagaard Madsen,et al.  1st DeepWind 5 MW Baseline design , 2012 .

[20]  M. Worstell.  Aerodynamic performance of the 17-m-diameter Darrieus wind turbine in the three-bladed configuration: An addendum , 1980 .

[21]  R. J. Templin,et al.  Vertical-axis wind turbine development in Canada , 1983 .

[22]  H. Benjannet.  STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOR 4 MW VAWTG - PROJECT EOLE , 1986 .

[23]  J. H. Strickland,et al.  A Vortex Model of the Darrieus Turbine: An Analytical and Experimental Study , 1979 .

[24]  Torgeir Moan,et al.  Model improvements for evaluating the effect of tower tilting on the aerodynamics of a vertical axis wind turbine , 2013 .

[25]  Ernesto Benini,et al.  Evaluation of the different aerodynamic databases for vertical axis wind turbine simulations , 2014 .

[26]  Eastman N. Jacobs,et al.  Airfoil section characteristics as affected by variations of the Reynolds number , 1939 .

[27]  Joseph Katz.  Large-scale vortex-lattice model for the locally separated flow overwings , 1982 .

[28]  T. Ashwill.  Measured data for the Sandia 34-meter vertical axis wind turbine , 1992 .

[29]  L. Battisti,et al.  DeepWind an innovative wind turbine concept for offshore , 2011 .