Coupled Time-Domain Investigation on a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Supported on a Floating Platform

The dynamic responses of a floating vertical axis wind turbine(VAWT)are assessed on the basis of an aero-hydro-mooring coupled model.The aerodynamic loads on the rotor are acquired with double-multiple stream tube method.First-and second-order wave loads are calculated on the basis of 3D potential theory.The mooring loads are simulated by catenary theory.The coupled model is established,and a numerical code is programmed to investigate the dynamic response of the semi-submersible VAWT.A model test is then conducted,and the numerical code is validated considering the hydrodynamic performance of the floating buoy.The responses of the floating VAWT are studied through the numerical simulation under the sea states of wind and regular/irregular waves.The effects of the second-order wave force on the motions are also investigated.Results show that the slow-drift responses in surge and pitch motions are significantly excited by the second-order wave forces.Furthermore,the effect of foundation motion on aerodynamic loads is examined.The normal and tangential forces of the blades demonstrate a slight increase due to the coupling effect between the buoy motion and the aerodynamic loads.

Optimized Design of H-Type Vertical Axis Wind Airfoil at Multiple Angles of Attack

Numerical simulations are conducted to improve the energy acquisition efficiency of H-type vertical axis wind turbines through the optimization of the related blade airfoil aerodynamic performance.The Bézier curve is initi-ally used tofit the curve profile of a NACA2412 airfoil,and the moving asymptote algorithm is then exploited to optimize the design of the considered H-type vertical-axis wind-turbine blade airfoil for a certain attack angle.The results show that the maximum lift coefficient of the optimized airfoil is 8.33%higher than that of the original airfoil.The maximum lift-to-drag ratio of the optimized airfoil exceeds the maximum lift-to-drag ratio of the ori-ginal airfoil by 11.22%.Moreover,the power coefficient is increased by 12.19%and the torque coefficient of the wind turbine is significantly improved.

Studies on Performance of Distributed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine under Building Turbulence

As a part of the new energy development trend,distributed power generation may fully utilize a variety of decentralized energy sources.Buildings close to the installation location,besides,may have a considerable impact on the wind turbines’operation.Using a combined vertical axis wind turbine with an S-shaped lift outer blade and-shaped drag inner blade,this paper investigates how a novel type of upstream wall interacts with the incident wind at various speeds,the influence region of the turbulent vortex,and performance variation.The results demonstrate that the building’s turbulence affects the wind’s horizontal and vertical direction,as well as its speed,in downstreamplaces.The wall’s effect on wind speed changing in the downstreamarea is thoroughly investigated.It turns out that while choosing an installation location,disturbing flow areas or low disturbing flow zones should be avoided to have the least impact on wind turbine performance.

Research on the Unsteady Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Vertical Axis Tidal Turbine

The unsteady hydrodynamic characteristics of vertical axis tidal turbine are investigated by numerical simulation based on viscous CFD method. The starting mechanism of the turbine is revealed through analyzing the interaction of its motion and dynamics during starting process. The operating hydrodynamic characteristics of the turbine in wave-current condition are also explored by combining with the linear wave theory. According to possible magnification of the cyclic loads in the maximum power tracking control of vertical axis turbine, a novel torque control strategy is put forward, which can improve the structural characteristics significantly without effecting energy efficiency.

CFD Simulation of Fixed and Variable Pitch Vertical Axis Tidal Turbine

In this paper, hydrodynamic analysis of vertical axis tidal turbine （both fixed pitch ＆ variable pitch） is numerically analyzed. Two-dimensional numerical modeling ＆ simulation of the unsteady flow through the blades of the turbine is performed using ANSYS CFX, hereafter CFX, which is based on a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） model. A transient simulation is done for fixed pitch and variable pitch vertical axis tidal turbine using a Shear Stress Transport turbulence （SST） scheme. Main hydrodynamic parameters like torque T, combined moment CM, coefficients of performance Cp and coefficient of torque Cr, etc. are investigated. The modeling and meshing of turbine rotor is performed in ICEM-CFD. Moreover, the difference in meshing schemes between fixed pitch and variable pitch is also mentioned. Mesh motion option is employed for variable pitch turbine. This article is one part of the ongoing research on tm＇bine design and developments. The numerical simulation results are validated with well reputed analytical results performed by Edinburgh Design Ltd. The article concludes with a parametric study of turbine performance, comparison between fixed and variable pitch operation for a four-bladed turbine. It is found that for variable pitch we get maximum Ce and peak power at smaller revolution per minute N and tip sped ratio 2.

Vertical axis wind turbine with omni-directional-guide-vane for urban high-rise buildings

A novel shrouded wind-solar hybrid renewable energy and rain water harvester with an omni-directional-guide-vane(ODGV) for urban high-rise application is introduced.The ODGV surrounds the vertical axis wind turbine(VAWT) and enhances the VAWT performance by increasing the on-coming wind speed and guiding it to an optimum flow angle before it interacts with the rotor blades.An ODGV scaled model was built and tested in the laboratory.The experimental results show that the rotational speed of the VAWT increases by about 2 times.Simulations show that the installation of the ODGV increases the torque output of a single-bladed VAWT by 206% for tip speed ratio of 0.4.The result also reveals that higher positive torque can be achieved when the blade tangential force at all radial positions is optimized.In conclusion,the ODGV improves the power output of a VAWT and this integrated design promotes the installation of wind energy systems in urban areas.

Vegetative Growth Characters of the Young Apple Trees Trained in Vertical Axis System

Vegetative growth of young apple trees trained in vertical axis were studied with ' Red Fuji', 'Jonagold', 'Orin' and ' Starkrimson' on M7, MM106, M26 interstocks in northern China. About 30 branches sprouted from the central leader of the trees during the 4 years after planting for ' Red Fuji' and 'Jonagold', and 26.7 and 20 branches respectively for 'Orin' and 'Starkrimson'. Moreover the 2-year-old section of the central leader had the strongest capacity to sprout new branches (and sometimes the 1-year-old section too), and sprouted more new shoots than the other section. The total new shoots including spurs on the 4-year-old trees reached 631 per tree for 'Jonagold', about 480 for 'Red Fuji' and 'Orin', and 312 for 'Starkrimson'. Percentage of spurs was about 61% for 'Red Fuji', 73% for 'Jonagold' and 'Orin', and 81% for 'Starkrimson'. Growth vigor of the central leader and limbs of the young apple trees could quickly decline: the growth of the central leader decreased markedly in the fourth year after planting, and branches from the central leader grew vigorously only in the current growth season or in the first two years after branching.

Performance Analysis of a Vertical Axis Tidal Turbine With Flexible Blades

In this study, a vertical axis tidal turbine with flexible blades is investigated. The focus is on analyzing the effect of flexible airfoils types and blade flexibility on turbine net output power. To this end, five different flexible airfoils （Symmetric and Non-symmetric） are employed. The results show that the use of a thick flexible symmetric airfoil can effectively increase output power compared to that achievable with a conventional rigid blade. Moreover, the use of highly flexible blades, as opposed to less flexible or rigid blades, is not recommended.

Blade pitch control of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine

Collective pitch control and individual pitch control algorithms were present for straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine to improve the self-starting capacity.Comparative analysis of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine(SB-VAWT) with or without pitch control was conducted from the aspects of aerodynamic force,flow structure and power coefficient.The computational fluid dynamics(CFD) prediction results show a significant increase in power coefficient for SB-VAWT with pitch control.According to the aerodynamic forces and total torque coefficient obtained at various tip speed ratios(TSRs),the results indicate that the blade pitch method can increase the power output and decrease the deformation of blade;especially,the total torque coefficient of blade pitch control at TSR 1.5 is about 2.5 times larger than that of fixed pitch case.Furthermore,experiment was carried out to verify the feasibility of pitch control methods.The results show that the present collective pitch control and individual pitch control methods can improve the self-starting capacity of SB-VAWT,and the former is much better and its proper operating TSRs ranges from 0.4 to 0.6.

Effect of blade pitch angle on aerodynamic performance of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources, straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine(S-VAWT) appears to be particularly promising for the shortage of fossil fuel reserves owing to its distinct advantages, but suffers from poor self-starting and low power coefficient. Variable-pitch method was recognized as an attractive solution to performance improvement, thus majority efforts had been devoted into blade pitch angle effect on aerodynamic performance. Taken into account the local flow field of S-VAWT, mathematical model was built to analyze the relationship between power outputs and pitch angle. Numerical simulations on static and dynamic performances of blade were carried out and optimized pitch angle along the rotor were presented. Comparative analyses of fixed pitch and variable-pitch S-VAWT were conducted, and a considerable improvement of the performance was obtained by the optimized blade pitch angle, in particular, a relative increase of the power coefficient by more than 19.3%. It is further demonstrated that the self-starting is greatly improved with the optimized blade pitch angle.

Numerical and Experimental Study of the 3D Effect on Connecting Arm of Vertical Axis Tidal Current Turbine

Vertical axis tidal current turbine is a promising device to extract energy from ocean current. One of the important components of the turbine is the connecting arm, which can bring about a significant effect on the pressure distribution along the span of the turbine blade, herein we call it 3D effect. However, so far the effect is rarely reported in the research, moreover, in numerical simulation. In the present study, a 3D numerical model of the turbine with the connecting arm was developed by using FLUENT software compiling the UDF（User Defined Function） command. The simulation results show that the pressure distribution along the span of blade with the connecting arm model is significantly different from those without the connecting arm. To facilitate the validation of numerical model, the laboratory experiment has been carried out by using three different types of NACA aerofoil connecting arm and circle section connecting arm. And results show that the turbine with NACA0012 connecting arm has the best start-up performance which is 0.346 m/s and the peak point of power conversion coefficient is around 0.33. A further study has been performed and a conclusion is drawn that the aerofoil and thickness of connecting arm are the most important factors on the power conversion coefficient of the vertical axis tidal current turbine.

Performance Analysis and Design of Vertical Axis Tidal Stream Turbine

This study numerically analyzes the unsteady flow around the Darrieus-type turbine by using FLUENT and deals with the application to the design of blades. Two kinds of blade sections were used in this study. Unsteady RANS equation and the turbulence model, either k-e or k-co model, which are appropriate for each blade section, were employed. First for the NACA 634-021 blade that the experimental data is available, the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional numerical analyses have been performed and compared with the experimental result. For the optimization of the turbine, the parametric study has been performed to check the performance in accordance with the changes in the number of blades, solidity and camber. It is demonstrated that the present approach could draw the turbine characteristics better in performance than the existing turbine. Next for the NACA 653-018 blade with the high lift-drag ratio from the purpose of developing highly-efficient turbine, this study has also tried to get the highly efficient turbine specifications by analyzing the performance while using 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional numerical analyses and the result was verified through the experiment. According to the present study, it is concluded that the 3-dimensional numerical analysis has simulated the experimental values relatively well and also, the 2-dimensional analysis can be a useful tool in the parametric study for the turbine design.

Optimization of Blade Motion of Vertical Axis Turbine

In this paper,a method is proposed to improve the energy efficiency of the vertical axis turbine.First of all,a single disk multiple stream-tube model is used to calculate individual fitness.Genetic algorithm is adopted to optimize blade pitch motion of vertical axis turbine with the maximum energy efficiency being selected as the optimization objective.Then,a particular data processing method is proposed,fitting the result data into a cosine-like curve.After that,a general formula calculating the blade motion is developed.Finally,CFD simulation is used to validate the blade pitch motion formula.The results show that the turbine＇s energy efficiency becomes higher after the optimization of blade pitch motion;compared with the fixed pitch turbine,the efficiency of variable-pitch turbine is significantly improved by the active blade pitch control;the energy efficiency declines gradually with the growth of speed ratio;besides,compactness has lager effect on the blade motion while the number of blades has little effect on it.

Analysis of static structural mechanics of vertical axis wind turbine with lift-drag combined starting structures

The finite element analysis was carried out for a composite vertical axis wind turbine with lift-drag combined starting structures to ensure the structure safety of a vertical axis wind turbine(VAWT).The static and modal analysis of rotor of a composite vertical axis wind turbine was conducted by using ANSYS software.The relevant contour sketch of stress and deformation was obtained.The analysis was made for static structural mechanics,modal analysis of rotor and the total deformation and vibration profile to evaluate the influence on the working capability of the rotor.The analysis results show that the various structure parameters lie in the safety range of structural mechanics in the relative standards.The analysis showing the design safe to operate the rotor of a vertical axis wind turbine.The methods used in this study can be used as a good reference for the structural mechanics′analysis of VAWTs.

Roadside Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT): An Effective Evolutionary Design for Australian Highway Commuters with Minimum Dynamic Stall

There are multiple approaches of design for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) that have been studied by engineers and leaps have been made in high performing innovations. By harnessing the energy from these wind turbines, the problem of roadside lights shortage can be solved. This can help to prevent the accidents while providing clean energy. The importance of coastal areas like Australian beaches regarding wind turbines cannot be neglected as a higher number of people like to live near coastal vicinity. Also, most of the freeways in Australia expand across the sea. In this paper, one such design has been analyzed to implement across the highways. But still with many advancements in technology, an immense gap is present in the research of implementation of VAWTs. The design discussed in the current study is a VAWT which can be installed on the side of the highway roads to provide clean and cheap energy for illuminating the roads. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was conducted on the blades of the turbine to analyze its performance under operating conditions. Furthermore, the paper elaborates the generation of drag and lift on the blades of the turbine. A wind speed of 60 km/h just produced 6.1 N force on the turbine blades as a result of drag. The cost analysis showed the cheap production of such mechanism that can provide longer service when installed.

Performance analysis of 20 Pole 1.5 KW Three Phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator for low Speed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

This paper gives performance analysis of a three phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) connected to a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). Low speed wind condition (less than 5 m/s) is taken in consideration and the entire simulation is carried in Matlab/Simulink environment. The rated power for the generator is fixed at 1.5 KW and number of pole at 20. It is observed under low wind speed of6 m/s, a turbine having approximately1 mof radius and2.6 mof height develops 150 Nm mechanical torque that can generate power up to 1.5 KW. The generator is designed using modeling tool and is fabricated. The fabricated generator is tested in the laboratory with the simulation result for the error analysis. The range of error is about 5%-27% for the same output power value. The limitations and possible causes for error are presented and discussed.

Dynamic Circulation Control for a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine using Virtual Solidity Matching

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) with fixed pitch blades have a limited power capture performance envelope as the Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) changes. Circulation Control (CC) has been proposed and simulated to possibly increase power capture of a VAWT using constant CC jet momentum, but a practical method of minimizing CC usage has yet to be explored. In addition, VAWTs are typically limited in power capture performance either by a maximum peak at a small set of TSR or wide operating TSR at fractions of the peak performance based on the design solidity. Both the reduced jet usage and solidity limitation were addressed by developing a method of dynamically using CC to perform a virtual solidity change. The developed method described within this work used CC to change blade aerodynamics to specifically match a maximum performing static solidity or wake shape at a given TSR. Simulation results using an existing aerodynamics model indicated a significant reduction in the re-quired CC jet momentum compared to a constant CC system along with control over power capture for a CC-VAWT.

A Review on the Evolution of Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine: Small Wind Turbines

Wind energy witnessed tremendous growth in the past decade and emerged as the most sought renewable energy source after solar energy. Though the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) is preferred for multi-megawatt power generation, Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) is as competitive as HAWT. The current study aims to summarize the development of VAWT, in particular, Darrieus turbine from the past to the project that is underway. The reason for the technical challenges and past failures are discussed. Various configurations of VAWT have been assessed in terms of reliability, components and low wind speed performance. Innovative concepts and the feasibility to scale up for megawatt electricity generation, especially in offshore environments are investigated. This paper is a modest attempt to highlight the state-of-the-art information on the ongoing developments focusing on decentralized power generation. This review is envisioned as an information hub for the major developments in VAWT and its technical advancements so far.

Characteristic Aerodynamic Loads and Load Effects on the Dynamics of a Floating Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

The development of offshore wind farms in deep water favors floating wind turbine designs, but floating horizontal axis wind turbines are facing the challenge of high cost of energy (CoE). The development of innovative designs to reduce the CoE is thus desirable, such as floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). This study demonstrates the characteristics of aerodynamic loads and load effects of a two-bladed floating VAWT supported by a semi-submersible platform. Fully coupled simulations are performed using the time-domain aero-hydro-servo-elastic code SIMO-RIFLEX-AC. It is found that thrust, lateral force, and aerodynamic torque vary considerably and periodically with the rotor azimuth angle. However, the variation in the generator torque can be alleviated to some extent by the control strategy applied. Moreover, the variations of platform motions and tensions in the mooring lines are strongly influenced by turbulent winds, whereas those of tower-base bending moments are not. The tower-base bending moments exhibit notable two-per-revolution (2P) response characteristics. © 2017 Tianjin University and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany

A wind tunnel experiment of self-starting capability for straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine

In this study,wind tunnel experiment was carried out to investigate the self-staring capability for straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine.The flow visualization also was been performed at the rest of the rotor.The effect of the azimuthal angle of blade position relative to wind direction on the self-starting capability was discussed based on the results of flow visualization.The torque and centripetal force of the rotor when the self-starting behavior starts were roughly calculated with the flow visualization results of the rotor.It is suggested that there exists the condition of wind speed and configuration of the blade position of the rotor at the rest of rotor to the reach to situational rotation number.