Int. J. Renewable Energy & Environmental Engineering
ISSN 2319-5347, ISI Impact Factor: 0.763
VOLUME 03 NO. 01 JANUARY 2015:
Title: Numerical analysis of aerodynamics of wind turbine
blades
Authors:
Pavan Pandit, P. P. Revankar
Abstract: Wind energy has
been shown to be one of the most viable sources of
renewable energy. With current technology, the low cost
of wind energy is competitive with more conventional
sources of energy such as coal. Most airfoil blades
available for commercial grade wind turbines incorporate
a straight span-wise profile and airfoil shaped cross
sections. These blades are found to be very efficient at
lower wind speeds in comparison to the potential energy
that can be extracted. This paper explores the
possibility of increasing the efficiency of the blades
at higher wind speeds while maintaining efficiency at
the lower wind speeds. The design intends to maintain
efficiency at lower wind speeds by selecting the
appropriate orientation and size of the airfoil cross
sections based on a low oncoming wind speed and given
constant rotation rate. This study compares the wind
turbines employing symmetric blade profiles and the same
blade profiles with camber without hindering the
dimensions of the turbine. The performance of these
turbines was investigated using tools such as Javafoil
and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The properties
of the airfoil such as the drag coefficient(Cd), lift
coefficient(Cl), tip speed ratio(TSR) and the pressure
coefficient(Cp) are computed using different models like
Standard k-ε model, Eppler’s transition model and
calcfoil Stall model. Computations at different angles
of attack were carried out.
Keywords: Renewable Energy, Airfoil
Blades, Wind Speeds, Camber, Javafoil, CFD, Cd,
Cl, TSR, Cp , CFD Models
Pages: 83-87