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Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 1286 – 1289

The 6th International Conference on Applied Energy – ICAE2014

Computational fluid dynamics simulation of the effect of guide-vane

angles on the performance of the exhaust air energy recovery
turbine generator
S. C. Poha, S. Y. Sima, W. T. Chonga,*, A. Fazlizana,b,*, S. Y. Yipb, W. P. Hewb,
W. Z. W. Omarc,d, Z. M. Zaine
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b
UMPEDAC, Level 4, Wisma R&D, University Malaya, Jalan Pantai Baharu, 59990, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
c
Centre of Electrical Energy Systems, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
d
Aeronautical, Automotive and Offshore Engineering Department, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310
UTM, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
e
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

Abstract
An exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator is designed to recover part of the energy in the discharged air from an exhaust air
system. The design is a combination of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines (installed in cross-wind position), guide-vanes and a
diffuser. Its working principle was tested on a scaled model of cooling tower and simulated in a computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
package. From the guide-vanes study, optimum guide-vanes arrangement is 100°, 70° and 90°. The system with optimized guide-
vanes arrangement produced the highest torque coefficient compared to the other configurations. The average torque coefficient of
the system was increased by 24.3% with the introduction of diffuser and guide-vanes at optimized angles, i.e. from 0.029 to 0.036.
From the graph of the torque coefficient versus azimuth angle, the overall positive torque zone was increased with the introduction
of the guide-vanes with optimum configuration. The exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator can be another green technology
that recovers waste energy from the discharged wind of an exhaust air system for urban areas.

©
© 2014
2014TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published Ltd. This
by Elsevier Ltd.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAE
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ICAE2014
Keywords: decarbonisation; energy recovery; diffuser; guide-vane; urban wind turbine

1. Introduction
Due to the growing prosperity and expanding economies, energy demand in developing nations will rise 65 percent
by 2040 compared to 2010 [1]. Urban areas are the place where most energy services are needed because urbanization
is closely linked to high population densities and concentration of economic activities and production [2]. For future
sustainable energy supply, on-site renewable energy generations are highly recommended. The concept of on-site
renewable energy generation is to extract energy from renewable sources close to the populated area where the energy
is required [3].
However, the wind characteristics, e.g. turbulence and low speed are the obstacles for wind energy generation
system in urban areas. To overcome this problem, researchers have come out with innovative design to enhance energy
generation by the augmented wind turbine systems [4-6]. As another alternative, a wind energy generation system from

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6012-7235038; fax: +603-79675317.

E-mail address: chong_wentong@um.edu.my (W.T. Chong)
a.fazlizan@siswa.um.edu.my (A. Fazlizan)

1876-6102 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ICAE2014
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.1082
 S.C. Poh et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 1286 – 1289 1287

the unnatural wind resources for on-site renewable energy generation is introduced. High speed wind which is
discharged from an exhaust air system has a great potential for energy generation. The wind turbine system used for
this purpose is called the exhaust air energy recovery wind turbine generator. The complete configuration of the
exhaust air energy recovery wind turbine generator is equipped with diffuser and guide-vanes. In this paper, the study
on the effect of guide-vanes angles is conducted via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is presented.

2. Design description and working principle

The exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator was filed as a patent in 2011. General arrangement of the system
is depicted in Fig. 1. The system consists of two vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs), diffuser plates, guide-vanes,
safety grill and supporting structure. It is installed at the discharge outlet of a cooling tower. The VAWTs (in cross-
wind orientation) are enclosed by diffuser plates, guide-vanes (between the cooling tower and VAWTs) and safety
grill. The whole system is support by the supporting structure. Further explanation on this design can be found in the
patent document which available online [7].

Fig. 1 (a) Front view of exhaust air energy generator; (b) Perspective view of the wind turbine with guide-vanes and safety grill

The exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator is designed for the purpose to recover part of energy in the high
speed air that is discharged from a cooling tower. It will be useless if the system is causing obvious negative impact to
the performance of cooling tower. A correct matching of the system configuration and positioning is essential to ensure
minimum or no negative effect on the performance of cooling tower and generating sufficient amount of energy.

3. Methodology
The effect of installing the energy recovery turbine generator at the outlet of an exhaust air system was
investigated via laboratory test on a scaled model of a cooling tower. The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 2. It
was constructed similar to the general arrangement of a common cooling tower with the air inlet at the bottom and
powered by an industrial fan. The test was conducted in three configurations, i.e. i) cooling tower only, ii) cooling
tower with VAWT, and iii) cooling tower with VAWT and enclosure (diffuser and guide-vanes). Dimension details of
the model is described in Table 1. Result for this initial experiment, i.e. discharged wind speed distribution and turbine
rotational speed would be the input for the CFD simulations.

Fig. 2 (a) Scaled model for laboratory testing; (b) Sketch of model’s cross section (half side only)

The numerical study of the VAWT of the exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator performance was conducted
by using CFD software ANSYS FLUENT 14.0. Before proceed with this case, the simulation conditions and
parameters were validated by re-simulating the single bladed (NACA 0015 airfoil) VAWT’s torque coefficient data
accomplished by Oler et al [8] until getting the satisfactory result. Then, to suit the study, the airfoil type, wind speed
distribution and turbine speed is change to suit the study. Similar to the laboratory test, FX63-137 airfoil with a chord
length of 45 mm and rotor radius of 150 mm was used in the simulation. The simulation computational conditions are
1288 S.C. Poh et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 1286 – 1289

tabulated in Table 1. In this simulation, two mesh types were created which define as “airfoil” to represent the VAWT
blade rotation and “diffuser” to represent the diffuser plate and air flow inlet. Meshes are depicted in Fig. 3.

Table 1. Simulation parameter and computational conditions

Computational conditions
Rotor tip speed, Rω: 7.3 m/s CFD algorithm: SIMPLE
Inlet velocity, Vin: 5.72 m/s (tip speed ratio = 1.3) Interpolating scheme (momentum): 2nd order upwind
Reynolds number: 16900 Boundary Condition, Outlet: Pressure, Outflow
3
Density: 1.18 kg/m (air density at 25 °C) Interpolating scheme (turbulence): 2nd order upwind
Viscosity: 1.85x10-5 kg/m.s Residual Error: 1 x10-5
Pressure : 101325 Pa Boundary Condition, inlet: Velocity inlet
Space / Time: unsteady, 2nd order implicit, 2 dimensional Reference frame: Absolute
Viscous Model: K and ω (SST) Blade motion: Moving Mesh (Rotational)

Fig. 3. (a) FX 63-137 airfoil and VAWT sliding mesh; (b) FX 63-137 airfoil and VAWT sliding mesh and diffuser mesh

4. Result and discussion

The CFD simulation for this case is different compared to the case for wind turbine in natural wind stream. This is
due to the wind speed from fan is not uniform. Fig. 4 illustrates the wind speed distribution that were measured at the
discharged outlet of the cooling tower model. The highest wind speed was more than 9 m/s at about 200 mm radius
while the lowest wind speed was near to the outer radius with about 2 m/s. The measurements were taken at a distance
of 50 mm to the exhaust air outlet. Thus, the best torque area of VAWT should be positioned at the highest wind speed
region. This data were used in the CFD simulations.

Fig. 4. Discharge air profile at the cooling tower outlet

CFD simulations were conducted in two energy recovery turbine generator configurations, i.e. without diffuser and
guide-vanes and with diffuser and guide-vanes. From the guide-vanes study, optimum guide-vanes arrangement is
100°, 70° and 90°. This guide-vane configuration allows the increase air speeds to be directed to the positive torque
area of the turbine and hence improves the turbine performance. The system with optimized guide-vanes arrangement
produced the highest torque coefficient compared to the other configurations. The results are depict in Fig. 6. These
results show a good experiment with the experimental results by Yip et al. [9].
The average torque coefficient of the system was increased by 24.3% with the introduction of guide-vanes at
optimized angles, i.e. from 0.029 to 0.036. From the graph of the torque coefficient versus azimuth angle (Fig. 6), the
overall torque zone was increased with the introduction of the guide-vanes with optimum configuration. It is seen that
 S.C. Poh et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 1286 – 1289 1289

positive torque has been gained at azimuth angles from 0° to 260° and from 320° to 360°. Thus, maximized the
positive torque that provides higher power can be obtained.

Fig. 6. Torque coefficient for the system without diffuser and guide-vanes, and the system with diffuser and guide-vanes at optimized angles

5. Conclusion
As a conclusion, the exhaust air energy recovery turbine generator is another green technology that can recover
waste energy from the discharged wind of an exhaust air system. VAWTs that mounted at a correct position is
expected to generate energy from the waste discharged air without significant negative impact to the original system.
The performance of the exhaust air energy recovery is further enhanced by the integration of diffuser and guide-vanes
where the torque coefficient was increased by 24.3% compared to the system with turbine only. Guide-vanes at
optimized angles serve the purpose to change the direction of airflow for better angle of attack of the turbine blades
and hence improve the turbine performance. The effect of distance between turbines to the exhaust outlet will be
included in future study.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the University of Malaya for the facilities and assistance provided in the patent
application (Patent pending: PCT/MY2012/000274), and the research grant allocated under the project PG047-2012B
(Postgraduate Research Grant) and D000022-16001 (High Impact Research Grant). Sincere gratitude is also dedicated
to the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) for the Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme
(PR002-2012A). Special appreciation is credited to Truwater Cooling Towers Sdn. Bhd. as an industrial partner for
providing the facilities, fabrication materials, and manpower to perform the tests.

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Biography
Dr. Chong Wen Tong is a senior lecturer in University of Malaya. Dr. Chong has published more than
40 technical papers and filed 9 intellectual property rights on renewable energy research. His love for
innovation has seen him win many prestigious awards and medals in international events.