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Improved Performance of H-Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Emphasis

on Start-up Behavior

Thesis · January 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33999.48803

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 IMPROVED PERFORMANCE OF
H-DARRIEUS VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE
WITH EMPHASIS ON START-UP BEHAVIOR

By

MAHDI TORABI ASR

Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies,

Universiti Putra Malaysia, in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

January 2016
 Abstract of thesis presented to the Senate of Universiti Putra Malaysia in
fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE OF
H-DARRIEUS VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE
WITH EMPHASIS ON START-UP BEHAVIOR

By

MAHDI TORABI ASR

January 2016

Chair: Assoc. Prof. Faizal Mustapha, PhD

Faculty: Engineering

Installation of H-type vertical axis wind turbines in many cases limited by the
inherent start-up issue associated with this type of turbines. This could be of
crucial importance in environments with low average wind speed.
For the purpose of investigation on start-up behavior of this class of turbines
a series of transient CFD simulations carried out within ANSYS Fluent
software. In contrary with the conventional approach in which a constant
angular velocity specified for the rotor, in the present work the turbine left free
to accelerate based on the aerodynamic torque experienced over time.
Turbulence modelling and grid generation were discussed deeply as key
parameters in investigations of this type. The numerical results demonstrated
good agreement with published experimental data and the CFD methods
shown to be useful for such applications with high level of accuracy.
The validated CFD setup then utilized in the study of several geometric
attributes of rotor blades. Symmetric and cambered airfoils from different
thicknesses beside a wide range of pitch angles were examined. The results
came into a conclusion that the medium thickness cambered airfoil, NACA
2418, with an outward pitch angle of 1.5° introduces the best start-up
characteristics for low-solidity constant-geometry H-Darrieus turbine along
with retaining the peak performance.
In addition, a new rotor design of variable-geometry was developed in order
to overcome the start-up issue more reliably and applicable for even more
extended ranges of freestream condition with respect to wind speed. The
design succeeded to exhibit its self-starting capability within 33% lower wind
speed beside offering a rise of same value in peak generated torque.

i
Considerable reduction factor of 60% in rotor acceleration time also added to
the advantages of employing this design.

ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT i
ABSTRAK iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
APPROVAL vi
DECLARATION viii
LIST OF TABLES xi
LIST OF FIGURE xii
NOMENCLATURE xiii

CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Research Background 1
1.2 Problem Statement 2
1.3 Objectives 3
1.4 Scope of Study 4
1.5 Structure of Thesis 4

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6
2.1 Introduction 6
2.2 H-Darrieus Turbine Performance 7
2.3 Rotor Solidity 9
2.4 CFD Analysis Considerations 10
2.5 CFD Tools 12
2.6 VAWTs with Variable Rotor Geometry 14
2.7 Summery of Literature Review 15

3 METHODOLOGY 18
3.1 Introduction 18
3.2 Computational Analysis 19
3.2.1 Model Geometry and Meshing Topology 19
3.2.2 Boundary Conditions 22
3.2.3 Turbulence Modeling 23
3.2.4 Simulation Parameters 23
3.3 Rotor Geometry Variation and Improvement of
Turbine start-up 24
3.4 Development of Variable Solidity Wind Turbine 26
3.4.1 Introduction 26
3.4.2 Concept 26
3.4.3 Theory and Model Development 28

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 33

ix
 5 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 49

REFRENCES 54
APPENDIX A. INPUT FILES 59
APPENDIX B. DEVELOPMENT OF PITCHING MECHANISM 60
APPENDIX C. AEROFOIL COORDINATES 66
BIODATA OF STUDENT 77
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 79

x
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