05 - PAPER - Taher G - Investigation Performance Darieus VAWT
05 - PAPER - Taher G - Investigation Performance Darieus VAWT
05 - PAPER - Taher G - Investigation Performance Darieus VAWT
org
ISSN (e): 2250-3021, ISSN (p): 2278-8719
Vol. 04, Issue 05 (May. 2014), ||V7|| PP 18-29
Abstract: - Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) were originally considered as very promising for various
reasons. There is now a resurgence of interests for VAWTs, in particular Darrieus turbines. Using modern
design tools and computational approaches, it is possible to increase considerably the performance of
traditional VAWTs, reaching a level almost comparable to that of horizontal axis turbines. Since VAWTs show
many specific advantages (compact design, easier connection to gears/generator, easier blade control if needed,
lower fatigue.), it is important to check quantitatively the efficiency of such turbines. In the present study, a
barrier has been designed to increase the performance of the Darrieus wind rotor. The effect of this barrier on
the rotor performance has been analyzed numerically; the barrier has been placed in front of the rotor.
Numerical analysis has been carried -out for Darrieus wind rotor (with and without barrier). The power
performance values of the rotor have been calculated by numerical analysis, and finally they have been
compared. The obtained results show that higher performance when using the rotor with barrier. Finite Element
analysis (FE) has been used as the Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known that wind energy is very important as one of clean energy resources, and wind
rotors are the most important of the wind energy. There are two different physical principles to extract power
from wind. The first of them is the airfoil drag method, and the second is the airfoil lift principle. The Darrieus
turbine is the most common VAWT invented in 1931 [1-7] on the basis of the second principle. A lot of
investigations aims to improve the performance of vertical axis wind turbine like Darrieus and Savonius by
increasing wind velocity. [5, 11-12]
The present work aims to study the effect of barrier on the performance of the Darrieus vertical axis
wind turbine through CFD simulations. In the present study, a barrier arrangement has been designed to deflect
the wind for the purpose of increasing the low performance of the Darrieus wind rotor. This arrangement is
both simple and cheap as it is composed of flat metal sheets. The effect of this barrier arrangement on the
power performances values has been analyzed numerically.
λ= ωR/U (1)
A relation between the azimuth angle θ, the angle of attack αand the speed ratio λ has been obtained from
the velocity triangle in Fig., this relation is as follow:
α= (2)
If the airfoil is set at an angle of incidence α in a fluid flow and according to the standard airfoil
theory, it will generate a lift force FL normal to the free stream and a drag force FD in the direction of the free
stream. These lift and drag forces can then be resolved to get the tangential force F T and the axial force FN as
shown in Fig.. The tangential force F T has the instantaneous responsibility of the torque and the power outputs
from the Darrieus turbine.
For a Darrieus rotor of height H, a wind of incoming velocity U, the mechanical power P and the mechanical
torque on the axis of a Darrieus turbine can respectively be written as follows:
Cp = (4)
Where Cm and Cp are respectively the torque coefficient and the power coefficient, P is the mechanical power
extracted, ρ is the air density, A is the turbine swept area, R is radius of turbine and U is wind free stream
velocity. Power Coefficient depends on wind speed due to aerodynamic complexities of blade designs. [5]
The main features of the validation model are summarized in Table.. [14]
Governing Equations
The fluid dynamics equations have their mathematical representations which can be employed
individually or in a group depending on the need of the desired output. Three basic principles which govern the
characteristics of the flow of any fluid are conservation of mass, momentum and energy. In present case, we
are dealing with the equation of continuity with the application of K-ɛ model. The Continuity Equation or
Conservation of Mass given by White (2005), for more general cases, the density "ρ"can vary in time "t" and in
space"x ,y ,z and velocity "u" components in each of the three coordinate directions , and the continuity
equation takes on the more familiar form as follows :
0 (5)
Navier-Stokes Equation for an incompressible flow given by White (2005), as follows:
(6)
In Eq. (6), the convection terms are on the left. The terms on the right hand side are the pressure
gradient, a source term; the divergence of the stress tensor, which is responsible for the diffusion of
momentum; the gravitational force, another source term; and other generalized forces (source terms),
respectively .Here f represents "other" body forces (per unit volume), such as gravity or centrifugal force and μ
represents viscosity. [10, 13]
Two symmetry boundary conditions were used for the two side walls. The circumference around the circular
opening, centered on the turbine rotational axis, was set as an interface, thus ensuring the continuity in the flow
field. A mesh was generated for the Wind Tunnel sub-grid, in order to reduce engineering time to prepare the
CFD simulations. Fig3 shows the main dimensions and the boundary conditions of the Wind Tunnel sub-grid
area.
Fig.3Final scheme of geometry and boundary conditions for VAWT flow field simulation.
(8)
The quantities C1, C2, σk, and se are empirical constants. The quantity Gk appearing in both equations is a
generation term for turbulence. It contains products of velocity gradients, and also depends on the turbulent
viscosity:
(9)
Other source terms can be added to Equations (8) and (9) to include other physical effects such as swirl,
buoyancy or compressibility, for example. The turbulent viscosity is derived from both k and ɛ, and involves a
constant taken from experimental data, Cm, which has a value of 0.09:
(10)
Boundary Conditions
There are various boundary types available in FLUENT like pressure inlet, velocity inlet, mass flow
inlet, pressure outlet, pressure far-field, outflow, stationary wall, moving wall and axis. In this study, periodic
boundary condition is applied to set the airfoils rotating. Boundary conditions used for the present case have
been shown in Fig3.
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Investigation of the Aerodynamic Performance of Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
For this study a boundary pair of velocity inlet and pressure outlet is used. Pressure outlet boundary
condition is generally suitable for the simulation of airfoil related problems. Airfoils are considered to be a no
slip wall in reference to a moving fluid zone. The front of the domain was defined with boundary condition
Velocity Inlet, which allowed the magnitude of inlet flow and turbulent quantities to be specified. The turbulent
intensity of 0.1% and length scale of 0.005 m were applied to approximately account for the incoming flow
turbulence in the wind tunnel. The published measurements were carried out at the “Politecnico di Milano” in
Milan – Bovisa low turbulence wind tunnel. [8]
Unsteady simulation involves time dependent calculations. Time step is calculated using speed of the rotor.
Maximum iterations per time step set 100 iterations. The effect of rotor angle step on power coefficient at TSR 2.62
are investigated, this test shows that one degree step lead to a relative variation of the output quantity below
0.35%. After the appropriate size of the computational domain has been investigated, so one degree found to be
appropriate for the present validation study, but for small error less than 2.3% between two degree step and one
degree step in value of power coefficient, two degree will be used to reduce computing time and cost for other
simulations for the present work.
Fig.4 Validation of computational model, compared to publish experimental and CFD results for a
Darrieus turbine [8-9].
The optimal mesh configurations used in the CFD model of the single static airfoil were transferred into the
VAWT model with new boundary adaption (shown in Fig5). The total number of grids in the 2D VAWT model
was 149,125 cell.
Table.2. Barrier arrangements have been designed as shown in Fig7 in such a way as to rotate by 360˚ around
the rotor.
Fig.6 Design of the barrier arrangement placed in front of the Darrieus wind rotor
Fig.8 Scheme of geometry and boundary conditions for VAWT flow field simulation with barrier
in front of wind rotor.
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Investigation of the Aerodynamic Performance of Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
Fig9 shows the mesh configurations used in the CFD model of the single static airfoil were transferred
into the VAWT model with new boundary adaption. The near-wall treatment relies on standard wall functions.
In this study realizable k–ɛ turbulence model has been used in the analysis of turbulent flow. The y+ values
found near all walls fall within the recommended range for best-practice CFD (30 < y+ < 300). [10-13]
Fig.9 Mesh distribution for VAWT flow field simulation at barrier 1 with α=45˚ and β =15˚
The unsteady flow is solved by using the Sliding Mesh Model (SMM). Ten complete revolutions are often
computed, in case of rotor with barrier about 1500 iterations in steady flow is solved first to initialize solution
to unsteady flow.
Fig.10 Velocity and Pressure distributions for the rotor without barrier at TSR 2.62 on rotor and around blade.
In the present study, to increase the performance of the Darrieus wind rotors, a barrier arrangement
formed from wind deflecting plates has been placed in front of the rotor so as to prevent the negative torque. In
doing so, the aim is to increase the speed of the wind entering the rotor and thus to improve its efficiency. To
analyze the effects of barrier angles (α and β), influential in the barrier design.
In the same way, numerical analysis have been made for different barrier angles (αand β). This
numerical analysis is made through Barrier1 (
Table.2). shows the a angle-related changes of the power performance “Cp” values obtained for the
Barrier1 through numerical analysis made at the values of different tip -speed ration “λ”. It is seen here that the
power performance values obtained for Barrier1 at β = 80˚ and α = 80 ˚ through numerical analysis are the
highest power performance value has been found. This analysis is shown in Fig11 and Fig12.The velocity and
Pressure distributions obtained through numerical analysis for rotor with barrier1 at α and β equal to 80 ˚ are
given in Fig13.
1
POWER COEFFICIENT CP
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
3 3.5 4 4.5 5
tip‐speed ratio λ
Fig.11Effect of both angles α and β on Power Coefficient Cp at different tip speed rations λ. (Angles α and β
will be taken lower than 45˚)
Then numerical analysis is made through Barrier1, Barrier2, Barrier3, Barrier4, Barrier5 and Barrier6 (
Table.2).The angles β = 80˚ and α = 80˚ are used for all barriers dimension’s .This analysis is shown in
Fig14.From this analysis as dimensions of barrier is higher as power performance values are higher.
1.3
POWER COEFFICIENT CP
1.2
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
tip‐speed ratio λ
Fig.12 Effect of both angles α and β on Power Coefficient Cp at different tip speed rations λ. (Angles α and
β will be taken upper than 45˚)
Finally numerical analysis is made through different positions of Barrier1 as shown in Fig15. The
angles β = 80˚ and α = 80˚ are used for all barriers dimension’s .This analysis is shown in Fig16. From this
analysis position A will be the more effective position on power performance value.
Fig13 Velocity and Pressure distributions for the rotor with barrier at TSR 4.5 on rotor and around blade.
1.7
POWER COEFFICIENT CP 1.5
1.3
1.1
0.9
0.7
0.5
0.3
0.1
2 3 4 5 6
tip‐speed ratio λ
Fig.14 Effect of both barrier dimensions on Power Coefficient Cp at different tip speed rations λ. (Angles α and
β will be taken 80˚)
Fig.15 Different Positions of Barrier1 relative to wind rotor (Angles α and β will be taken 80˚)
Fig.16Effect of barrier position on Power Coefficient Cp at different tip speed rations λ. (Angles α and β will
be taken 80˚)
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