CAIRO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

MECHANICAL POWER ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

4th YEAR

2ND TERM 2020/2021

MEP 480

HAWT Graduation Project

DESIGN REPORT

7th April, 2021

Submitted by:
Name Section BN

Ahmed Omar Shaaban 1 30

Ahmed Fathi Ibrahim 1 31

Mohamed Medhat Kamel 4 4

Mohamed Yasser Ahmed 4 7

Mostafa Khaled Abdelhakem 4 20

 ABSTRACT
This project aims for the design, construction, operation, and testing of a small-scale, 1-KW
horizontal axis wind turbine. This is the first design step to estimate the overall dimensions and
efficiency, with preliminary simulations that include simple stress analysis and transient CFD
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 5
2. Theory of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine ............................................................................................... 6
i. How much energy is in the air?......................................................................................................... 6
ii. Operating parameters....................................................................................................................... 7
iii. Control Volume Analysis: .................................................................................................................. 8
iv. Optimum performance of the turbine .............................................................................................. 9
v. The blade element theory................................................................................................................. 9
3. Basics of Wind Turbine Blade Design .................................................................................................. 13
i. Force Analysis.................................................................................................................................. 13
vi. Defining Design Point ...................................................................................................................... 13
vii. Changing the design point: ......................................................................................................... 14
4. Design Procedures .............................................................................................................................. 15
i. Design Codes ................................................................................................................................... 15
ii. Q-Blade software ............................................................................................................................ 17
iii. Outputs & Results ........................................................................................................................... 18
5. Stress Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 22
6. CFD Simulations .................................................................................................................................. 24
i. Ansys Meshing ................................................................................................................................ 24
ii. Pre-Setup (CFX) ............................................................................................................................... 26
iii. Solution ........................................................................................................................................... 29
7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 30
8. References .......................................................................................................................................... 30
1. Introduction

Wind energy is a source of renewable power which comes from air current flowing across the
earth's surface. Wind turbines harvest this kinetic energy and convert it into usable power
which can provide electricity. It is a Green Power, the electricity produced from it is said to be
"clean" because its generation produces no pollution or greenhouse gases. As both health and
environmental concerns are on the rise, clean energy sources are a growing demand.

Sustainability of the Wind as a renewable energy resource, it is inexhaustible and requires no

"fuel" besides the wind that blows across the earth. This infinite energy supply is a security that
many users view as a stable investment in our energy economy as well as in our children's'
future.

Wind Energy is also Affordable, as it is a cost-competitive source of electricity, largely due to

technological advancements, as well as economies of scale as more of these machines are
manufactured and put online around the world.

As well as being affordable, wind power is a locally-produced source of electricity that enables
communities to keep energy dollars in their economy. Job creation (manufacturing, service,
construction, and operation) and tax base increase are other economic development benefits
for communities utilizing wind energy. Comparing Wind Energy to other sources of energy,
renewable and non-renewable, it is found to have its pros and cons, starting with solar energy
as one of the main and widely used sources, we find that both sources are preferred for
resident, with wind recommendation as it does not require sunlight, so energy could be
generated 24 over 7, On the other hand, while Wind Turbines requires to be situated high
above any obstacle, at a site with high wind energy, at least 12 miles per hour, Solar Cells can
be located on the ground at any site, with less number of moving parts, unless it uses a sun
tracing system, which gives it a point for less need to be maintained or a threaten of tear or
wear. For the above-mentioned reasons, it is commonly agreed that Solar is recommended for
residents while Wind is usually recommended for Utility.
2. Theory of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine

i. How much energy is in the air?

To answer this question, we will need to obtain the kinetic energy that the air generates when
it flows through the wind turbine.

Suppose we have a turbine which represented by a circular disk area of:

A=Pi*(radius)^2

For now, we will not take the blades of the turbines into consideration.

The rectangular shape represents the elemental volume of the air flow and it is the product of
the length delta x and the area delta A so that its mass is:

Mass = rho * deltaX * deltaA

d(KE) = 0.5 * rho * delta *deltaX * Uo^2

delta x= Uo * delta t

so kinetic energy can be obtained from:

Taking the limit of delta t

 ii. Operating parameters

Wind energy generation depends on multiple parameters but the most important ones are the
ones which have a direct effect on the power generated from the turbine and by carefully
choosing these parameters we will be able to achieve the best performance and generate the
max possible energy.

• The most important parameter is the Cp which is represented by:

CP: the ratio of the actual power produced to the power in the wind that would
otherwise pass the blade disk.

• The second parameter is the tip speed ratio (lambda):

It is the ratio of the circumferential velocity of the blade tips, Vtip, to the wind speed.
the tip speed ratio controls the blade aerodynamics. Usually, lambda ranges from 7 to
10 for a turbine operating at maximum CP. Thus, the tips are travelling at a velocity that
is many times the wind speed and this can cause them to approach the limit of
incompressible flow.

• The third parameter is should be recognized as a Reynolds number, Re, which generally
measures the importance of viscosity.

Later consideration of blade aerodynamic will show that the most useful form comes from
considering the lift and drag behavior of the airfoil sections that comprise the blades. This Re
contains the blade chord, c—the width of the blade—and the ‘‘total’’ velocity at the blade, UT,
both of which vary along the blade.
iii. Control Volume Analysis:

This figure shows the CV to analysis wind turbine behavior. The CV is a cylinder whose radius,
RCV, is very much larger than the blade tip radius, R. The upstream face of the CV (at the left-
hand side) is located far enough upstream that the velocity entering the CV is the wind speed
U0 and the pressure is ambient or zero-gauge pressure. In other words, the presence of the
blades does not influence the flow entering the upstream face of the CV. Because the turbine
extracts energy from the wind, the velocity in the far-wake, U∞, is always less than U0. The
radius of the far-wake is R∞. Thus, the wake expands as shown by the ‘‘bounding streamline’’
which is part of the ‘‘bounding stream tube’’, the boundary between the flow passing through
the blades and the ‘‘external’’ flow. This boundary is sharp and can support a discontinuity in
the velocity and pressure across the bounding streamline.

It is further assumed that U? and the pressure in the far-wake are uniform, and that the latter is
equal to atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, the presence of any swirl, or circumferential
velocity generated by the blades, is ignored.

The three conservation equations (mass, energy and momentum) for an incompressible airflow
(constant density) are now applied by assuming that the flow is uniform and steady.
iv. Optimum performance of the turbine

Recalling the power coefficient Cp:

where a is the ‘‘axial induction factor’’ defined by:

Now to get the maximum Cp we will differentiate with respect to ‘a’ and equal the results to
zero, this will give us ‘a’ with value of 1/3 and Cp=0.593

for optimum performance. This is the Betz–Joukowsky limit. It shows that a turbine can never
capture all the kinetic energy that would flow past the blade disk in the absence of the blades.

The derivation of the Betz–Joukowsky limit depends on major simplifications and assumptions
about the air flow, principally in terms of steadiness, uniformity, and the neglect of viscosity,
which cannot be strictly valid in practice.

v. The blade element theory

This theory divides the flow through the blades into a number of concentric annular stream
tubes. In practice, the number of stream tubes should be large enough to provide a good
approximation to the variations in velocity, chord, and twist along a blade. Experience shows
that typical performance analyses can be done accurately with between 10 and 20 blade
elements.

Assumptions used:

• The flow in each stream tube is independent of that in other stream tubes
• The forces acting on each blade element are the same as those on an aero foil of the
same section, angle of attack, and effective velocity.

The conservation equation used:

 • Conservation of mass

• Conservation of momentum

Where T represents the axial thrust

• Conservation of angular momentum

dQ represent the torque on the blade elements

The forces acting on blade element:

This figure shows the resulting lift and drag. By

definition, the lift acts at right angles to UT and the drag
acts in the direction of UT. We know that the magnitude
of the lift is many times that of the drag for well-
designed airfoils. Since the primary purpose of the
forces on the blade element is to produce a torque
about the axis of rotation, or equivalently, a
circumferential force in the direction of rotation, the
figure indicates the necessity of maximizing the lift and
minimizing the drag. Very simply, drag acts to reduce the
torque produced by the lift: the key to wind turbine
performance is the ratio of the lift to drag, rather than
the individual values.

The basic assumption is that the lift and drag acting on the blade element are the same as those
on an airfoil of the same section, angle of attack, and effective velocity. From the definitions of
the lift and drag coefficients, Cl and Cd:

the total thrust on N blade elements is:

and the torque due to the circumferential force is:

Equations of blade elements and stream tube can be combined by solving

With:
One way of doing this is through the following relationship for Phi
3. Basics of Wind Turbine Blade Design

i. Force Analysis

Let’s analyze forces and their directions at a specific airfoil profile;

• Coordinate frame:
Uz: direction of wind
Uɵ: direction of airfoil movement
Ur: direction of radius increase
• Uo: wind speed
• Ω *r: airfoil linear speed
• Ut: relative velocity between wind speed and airfoil speed
• L’: Lift (per unit span)
• D’: Drag (per unit span)
• α: angle of attack
• β: twist angle
• ɣ: relative speed angle with uz direction

α=β–ɣ

• F’ɵ: force in uɵ dir

F’ɵ =L’cos ɣ – D’ sin ɣ

• F’z force in uz dir

F’z=-L’ sin ɣ – D’ cos ɣ

• Q’: Torque pes unit span

Q’ = r * F’ɵ

ii. Defining Design Point

• Wind Speed upon installing location

• Target Power
• Generator rated speed Ω obtained from generator preselection to produce target power
• Minimum tip radius upon max Cp, Uo and target power
• Choose airfoil and get Cl & Cd variation with Alpha at arrange of Re then define α that
gives max L/D
 • Best α translates to twist angle with equation: β = α + ɣ

Let’s choose a specific blade section at a specific radius

• Get airfoil speed and wind speed to get relative speed Ut

• Calculate ɣ from velocity triangle
• Calculate lift, here we begin to specify a chord

L’=0.5 * rho * (Ut^2) * Cl * Chord

• Calculate drag

D’=0.5 * rho * (Ut^2) * Cd * Chord

• Calculate F’ɵ & F’z from L’ and D’

• From F’ɵ get Q’
• Repeat the same process for a number of sections of the blade (number of blade
elements) at different radius (blade radius)
• Sum Q’ at each element to get the total Q for 1 blade
• Calculate Q total

Q total = Q*Numb of blades

• Then calculate the target torque

target torque = target power / omega

• Compare Q total with Q target ➔ if not equal or even close, then we need to change
design point

iii. Changing the design point:

• Change Uo: depends on selected location

• Change Ω: Based on Generator rated speed and gearbox attached to it (change omega
means changing generator preselection)
• Change Cl & Cd by changing Airfoil section
• Change tip radius: minimum limit is optioned from Betz limit and target power,
maximum limit depends on stresses and total cost

Changing the design point is made to achieve the target power.

4. Design Procedures

We followed the same design concept stated in the previous section, with aid of MATLAB codes
and functions provided in David Wood’s book

iv. Design Codes

1) tcdist code

This code will provide the chord and

twist distribution fitted to the
tabulated data from Anderson
which were obtained at 1983.
These data are obtained for a 2
bladed 3m diameter wind turbine
using NACA4412 airfoil section.

The inputs are:

• nbes (number of blade

elements)
• pitch
• Tip radius
• Hub radius

Although the output distribution

is not what we intend to design,
the range of both the twist and
chord in addition to Reynold can
be used as inputs to the genetic
algorithm code that will be
discussed later on.

Reynold number is calculated from:

Re= (density*velocity*chord)/(dynamic viscosity)

So the max Reynold is calculated at max chord and velocity

And the min Reynold is at the min chord and velocity.

2) Genetic algorithm code

Genetic algorithm is a method in which a random population is initially generated after that
the program will use the best individuals to breed other population which will be tested to
determine the level of fit to the desired output, in this case it is the Cp and starting time, so
after it will compare the members it will be decided which ones to live and which to die.

Every member has genes which represent the chord and twist distribution and for every
new breed a gene breakthrough happens and presents a member with different genes
which may give a better fit.

The code inputs vary between specific values and ranges as it shown below:

Specific inputs
• number of blades (3 blades)
• U start which is about 2 meters/s
• U power
• Radius of hub which is 0.15 m as measured
• Radius of tip that will be generated from the betz limit
• Density of blades: 1060 kg/m3
• lambda start
• lambda power
• Reynold range which was calculated from tcdist code
• Cl and Cd variation with aoa at the Reynolds range (obtained using X-FOIL)
• resistive torque 0.4Nm (generator data)

Ranged inputs
• Chord (max, min) = (0.03, 0.5)
• Twist angle (max, min) = (-5, 35)
• Reynold (max, min)

The output of the genetic algorithm code will give us the chord and twist angle distribution
which will be used as an input to the power_calc code that we will use to calculate the total
generated power from the turbine which is around 1 kw for our design.

The required inputs for the power_calc code:

• Lambda power
• wind speed
• the chord and twist distribution
 v. Q-Blade software

To have an estimation of what the blade design will look like we used Q-Blade software which
enables us to visualize the blade giving it the chord and twist at every blade element
vi. Outputs & Results

• Case#1 (tip radius = 3 m, minimum chord = 0.03m)

After changing the tip radius from 2 to 3 m with 0.25m step & changing lambda from 3 to 9
with 0.5 step, we found that R_tip=3 at lambda = 8 will contribute to the highest power
output of 1045 Watts, with Cp of 0.494, while keeping starting time at a reasonable value of
23.19 sec

Results are shown below;

Also, the curve of Cp vs lambda for the 3 m tip radius is shown;

Cp vs tip speed ratio

0.5

0.495

0.49
Cp

0.485

0.48

0.475

0.47
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
lamda

Analyzing these results; we found that Re range is within our optimized SG-6043 airfoil
range (around 200,000), angle of attack for most blade elements is between 3 and 4 which
is the optimum angle of attack that gives maximum L/D. The only problem here is the chord
distribution; as the chord reaches the minimum value specified in the code inputs which is
0.03m and remains nearly constant along the last 6 blade elements, resulting in a very large
aspect ratio of the blade and suspicious stress handling ability.

• Case#2 (tip radius = 3m, minimum chord = 0.1m)

So, we changed the lower limit of chord in the inputs to be 0.1m instead of 0.03m, we found
that the blade profile and chord distribution is much better now. But the Reynolds number
exceeds the recommended range and the angle of attack showed negative values as shown
in the following results.

Note: optimum Cp of 0.46 has occurred at lambda =6 and the starting time became 59.672 s
Shown below; a comparison between the two blades profiles of case#1 and case#2:
 Case#1
Chord-Radius Distribution
Case#2
0.45

0.4

0.35

0.3

0.25
Chord

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Radius
5. Stress Analysis

We used Q-blade to study stresses on our blade which has 3 m diameter. Q-Blade program is
not efficient in stress analysis because that:

1) Doesn’t require the blade material to study stresses, so it does not indicate the studied
part to be safe or not.
2) Neglect the effect of the force in the fasteners which attach hub with the blades
3) Doesn’t do any stress calculation on any other parts except the blades.
The input data to calculate stresses

This program needs only 2 inputs:

1) Chord twist distribution

2) Normal force and tangential force on every element on the rotor
We could obtain chord twist distribution from the genetic algorithm MATLAB code of chapter 7,
and normal and tangential force as function of radius from Power_calc MATLAB code of chapter
5 which calculates thrust and torque on each element

Results:

We found that the blade will be stressed by 212.66 MPa, and deflected by 0.2 m in z direction
and 0.023 m in x direction. As shown below
This is still a preliminary step in studying stress analysis on our design, but it indicates that the
blade will fail. We will do another study on a more advanced software to get more specific
results.
6. CFD Simulations

vii. Ansys Meshing

We insert inflation layer to capture more details of boundary layer with first layer height
1mm as assumption. Then face sizing with element size 5mm (and it is suitable). then max
element size for domain is 1000mm and then starting in mesh independence.

Mech independence

We run meshing with above value and start to improve our meshing and we get

Inflation layer 10

First layer Height 0.04mm

Facing Element Size 5mm

Max. Element size 800mm

We failed in decreasing max. Element size in domain under 800mm for time saving and
eff. Of our laptops so we cannot use contact sizing as the different between element at
interface surfaces was so high to construct meshing between them so we skip this
option. but we got acceptable mesh construct
And we checked mesh quality and found it acceptable as well
 Mesh statistics

y-plus

Max. y- plus 18.211

Min. y-plus 0.0154

viii. Pre-Setup (CFX)

-We start solution with steady state solution to get initial condition with transient solution

- We put angular velocity with 127.5rpm and estimate 3 revolution with 100-time step per
revolution.

-we start with iteration from 1 to 30 every time step

- Residuals was taken 10-4.

Domain Boundaries
amb Boundary - ambinlet
Type INLET
Location ambientinlet
Settings
Flow Regime Subsonic
Heat Transfer Total Temperature
 Total 2.9815e+2 [K]
Temperature
Mass And Normal Speed
Momentum
Normal 5.0000e+0 [m s^-1]
Speed
Turbulence Medium Intensity and Eddy Viscosity Ratio
Boundary - in Side 1
Type INTERFACE
Location F107.103
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - out Side 1
Type INTERFACE
Location F108.103
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - side Side 1
Type INTERFACE
Location F109.103
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - ambiantside
Type OPENING
Location ambientside
Settings
Flow Direction Normal to Boundary Condition
 Flow Regime Subsonic
Heat Transfer Opening Temperature
Opening 2.9815e+2 [K]
Temperature
Mass And Opening Pressure and Direction
Momentum
Relative 1.0000e+0 [atm]
Pressure
Turbulence Medium Intensity and Eddy Viscosity Ratio
Boundary - amboutlet
Type OUTLET
Location ambientexit
Settings
Flow Regime Subsonic
Mass And Static Pressure
Momentum
Relative 1.0000e+0 [atm]
Pressure
rotating Boundary - in Side 2
Type INTERFACE
Location rotatinginlet
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - out Side 2
Type INTERFACE
Location rotatingexit
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - side Side 2
Type INTERFACE
 Location rotatingside
Settings
Heat Transfer Conservative Interface Flux
Mass And Conservative Interface Flux
Momentum
Turbulence Conservative Interface Flux
Boundary - rotating Default
Type WALL
Location F53.49, F54.49, F55.49, F56.49, F57.49, F58.49,
F59.49, F60.49, F61.49, F62.49, F63.49, F64.49,
F65.49, F66.49, F67.49, F68.49, F69.49, F70.49,
F71.49
Settings
Heat Transfer Adiabatic
Mass And No Slip Wall
Momentum
Wall Roughness Smooth Wall

ix. Solution

As per relatively low computational resources; solution stopped @itt 7. @time step 33 so with
this result we decide to calculate cp and it was 0.157 but it gave us indication that if we have
more time to run solution we will validate our design as total time steps was set to 300 time
steps. So of we managed to solvethem; the solution will be well improved.
7. Conclusion

Our interaction with the MATLAB code provided us with some modifications for the upcoming
designing optimization process such as reducing the tip speed ratio step while iterating (step
less than 0.5), this method will ensure the exact determination of the maximum operating
point.

In order to get realistic values using CFD analysis many iterations are required which consumes
time, which is considered as one of the major setbacks for the simulation process, this problem
can be solved by changing our computational resources with a more advanced one.

As mentioned in the report, we were not certain about the strength of the blades so we used Q
blade software as an initial indicator for the blade safety, as expected the design of the blades
should be optimized to ensure better strength, or we should consider using different material.

8. References

• “Small Wind Turbines” Analysis, Design, and Application, by David Wood

• Generator data obtained from: https://www.greefenergy.com/post/75