Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2016: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition

GT2016
June 13 – 17, 2016, Seoul, South Korea

GT2016-56377

SHAWT DESIGN: AIRFOIL AERODYNAMICS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF

ROUGHNESS

D. Holst∗, G. Pechlivanoglou, C. T. Kohlrausch, C. N. Nayeri, C. O. Paschereit

Chair of Fluid Dynamics
– Hermann-Föttinger-Institut –
Technische Universität Berlin
Müller-Breslau-Str. 8, 10623 Berlin
Germany
Email: David.Holst@TU-Berlin.de

ABSTRACT mental data is used to simulate a sHAWT in different stages of

Small horizontal axis wind turbines (sHAWTs) are mostly debris. While the peak power was reduced by two thirds com-
designed by smaller companies with no or just small possibili- pared to the clean configuration the annual energy production
ties of aerodynamic testing and hence, airfoil selection is often has halved under certain conditions.
based on published performance data and minimal or no exper-
imental testing from the blade designer’s side. This paper fo-
cuses on the aerodynamic consequences resulting from an un- INTRODUCTION
qualified airfoil selection and accumulating surface soiling. The
The market of small wind turbines is unique. Manufacturers
high performance low Reynolds profile FX 63-137 is compared
of sHAWTs often do not have the resources to perform exhaust-
to an Eppler-338 wing section as well as to a high performance
ing wind tunnel tests at various conditions. The turbines operate
utility scale wind turbine airfoil, AH 93-W-174 -1ex. We exten-
in turbulent, gust dominated environments. The designers are
sively investigated these three different airfoils within the low
sometimes not that experienced and hence the aerodynamic de-
Reynolds regime between 50,000 and 200,000. This regime is es-
sign is suboptimal. A study even revealed that 15 out of 43 tur-
pecially important for the starting behavior of a wind turbine, i.e.
bines analyzed, claim a power curve better than the theoretical
a quick speed up, and is crucial for small wind turbines because
possible Betz limit [1]. This situation complicates to specify a
they have more frequent start/stop events. A Reynolds number
proper return on investment.
of 200 k is additionally the operational regime of some sHAWT
SHAWTs are additionally used in off grid applications un-
under the 5-10 kW level.
der harsh conditions, e.g. 97 % of small wind turbines installed
The present study discusses not only the low Reynolds per-
in China in 2009 were without grid connection [2]. They have
formance of the smooth profiles but investigates the influence of
to endure high turbulence levels as well as more intermittent and
surface soiling. This ranges from 2D disturbances, such as a
variable inflow conditions on shorter time scales [3]. The In-
0.2 mm thin tripwire or several zigzag tapes, up to the simulation
ternational Energy Agency defined the task that research should
of massive sand build up by covering the entire leading edge re-
take care of small wind turbines in areas of high turbulence, e.g.
gion with a 40 grit sand paper. The experiments reveal that even
roof tops or forests [4]. Especially rural sites of installation of-
small surface soiling has an impact and massive roughness leads
ten imply less maintenance and additional blade surface soiling.
in some cases to the loss of 50 % in lift coefficient. The experi-
Pechlivanoglou et al. [5] gave several examples of environmen-
tal roughness, e.g. insects, sand grains, sand build-up, rainfall or
∗ Address all correspondence to this author.

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 0.1
z
c
0

FX 63−137
−0.1

0.1
z
c
0

AH 93−W−174
−0.1

0.1
z
c
0

EP 338
−0.1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
FIGURE 1. 3D isometric-view of the open loop wind tunnel at the x
c
HFI used for the current measurements

FIGURE 2. Contours of the airfoils under investigation:

salt crust.
An overview over the impact of several stages of surface
soiling is given within the present paper. This is based on exper-
imental wind tunnel data and furthermore used to consequently
evaluate the impact of soiled wind turbine blades on the financial
benefit because costs are one of the driving factors within small
wind industry [2].
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experiments presented within this paper were conducted
at the HFI in the open-loop wind tunnel. It has a cross section
of 0.28 m by 0.40 m as shown in fig. 1. A compact diffuser is
attached to the test section outlet of the Eiffel-type wind tunnel.
This ensures good flow conditions up to the maximum speed of
25 m/s. The fan is connected to a PC controlled motor.
A multimeter is additionally used to acquire the air temper-
ature within the test section to correct for temperature influences
and the data acquisition unit NI cDAQ-9178 is equipped with a
16bit analog input module NI-9220 for ±10 V signals and a 24bit
full bridge module NI-9237 to acquire the signals of the balance
strain gages. The inflow velocity is measured by two indepen-
dent systems using the pressure difference of the nozzle and the
pressure of a Prandtl probe. Both systems are each connected
to a differential pressure transducer, with a maximum range of
1000 Pa and an accuracy of 0.1 % full scale.
A three component balance measuring lift, drag, and pitch
moment is combined with a stepper motor, which controls the
angle of attack. Balance and motor units are outside of the test
section. The airfoils rotate around their quarter chord position
but must not touch the wind tunnel walls to ensure proper force
measurements. There are consequently small slits between walls
and airfoil causing a flow from pressure to suction side within
top: FX 63-137 [9]; middle: AH 93-W-174 [9]; bottom Eppler-338 [10]
this gaps. Nevertheless, this nearly fully automated setup is well-
suited to do parameter studies on airfoil sections, not for the most
accurate quantitative studies but well suited to discuss general
effects. The same wind tunnel was use by the authors for other
studies [6–8].
Airfoils of interest can be mounted on the balance with-
out changing the rest of the system. They have a chord length
of 0.14 m and are laminated out of glass-fiber-reinforced plas-
tic. The shape accuracy as well as the roughness is typical of
wind turbine blades of similar chord and thus representative for
sHAWT conditions. Deviations in shape are, nevertheless, typ-
ical for wind turbines [5]. All airfoils have a thickened trailing
edge of 2 mm because of manufacturing purposes. This mod-
ification of airfoils is also used for real turbines and was done
with the TE gap modification module of XFOIL which includes
a gradual smoothing function.
The airfoils of present large utility scale wind turbines are
designed for Reynolds numbers of several millions, e.g. the air-
foils of Delft university [11]. Small turbines within the range of
several kW do not reach these Reynolds numbers. The regime
less than 500 k is most important for the sHAWT. The definition
of low and high Reynolds numbers within this paper is based
on the sHAWT application. Low Reynolds numbers occur while
speed up and are in the range of 50-100 k and the higher val-
ues are in the range of more than 200 k. We will discuss within
this paper the performance of three different profiles, which are
shown in fig. 2, at Re ≤ 200 k. The FX 63-137 [9] is a high per-
formance profile designed for low Reynolds numbers of 500 k.
It was used for multiple small wind turbines on the market, e.g.
the Whisper-Series or the Lakota turbine [12]. The second air-

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 TABLE 1. Configurations for wind tunnel experiments
Positions Heights
Baseline - -
Trip wire 10 % c, 15 % c 0.2 mm, 0.72 mm
Zigzag tape* 10 % c, 15 % c 0.2 mm, 0.75 mm
Sand paper ±10 % c**, ±15 % c** grit 100, grit 40
* ZZ-tape: 12 mm wide, 60 deg angle
** represents full coverage from x % c pressure side to x % c
suction side
foil investigated is an Althaus AH 93-W-174 [9], which is a pro-
file used for the outer region of large turbine blades. It is cho-
sen to demonstrate the occurring problems if a high Re profile
is used under extreme off-design conditions, because this airfoil
was designed for Reynolds numbers beyond one million. XFOIL
could replace some of the AH experiments but within these un-
predictable conditions, e.g. separation bubbles or laminar lead-
ing edge stall, in combination with several roughness elements
the authors preferred wind tunnel measurements. The third and
last airfoil under investigation is a Eppler-338 [10]. It is also a
low Reynolds profile but used for other applications than wind
turbines. The Eppler-338 is used e.g. for micro air vehicles [13]
and was selected to highlight that choosing just a popular low
Reynolds airfoil is not enough for sHAWT applications.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The validation of the measurements is especially important
because of the high blockage and will be discussed in the first
part of this section. The effects of ZZ-tape, trip wire and sand
paper are analyzed in the according subsections. The analysis
will focus mainly on the FX 63-137 -1ex.
Validation and Baselines
The FX 63-137 airfoil is well suited to validate the entire
setup against literature. The datasets of Huber and Mueller [19],
and Bastedo et al. [20] was used for comparison. Fig. 3 shows
the measurements and the literature data.
The FX 63-137 profile has based on Bastedo et al. [20] a
laminar separation bubble, which was also found within pressure
measurements of the baseline configuration by Holst et al. [6].
Bastedo et al. investigated the behavior of the bubble under var-
ious conditions. Full laminar leading edge stall can occur if the
flow has not enough energy to reattach. The flow separated at low
angles of attack and reattached at approximately 7 deg as shown
in fig. 3(a). The polar of Bastedo is a mixture of the 75 k and
100 k datasets measured. The 75 k and 80 k polars match below
7 deg whereas the literature data fits the 100 k data after reattach-
ment. These differences are acceptable, because within this pa-
per a modified FX 63-137 airfoil was used which has a thickened
trailing edge. The higher the Reynolds number the better the
1.5
1
C l [- ]

0.5

The effect of blade surface soiling is additionally of inter- 0

75k
est. Therefore all profiles are investigated in different configu- −0.5 80k [Bastedo 1986]
rations with and without additional surface roughness shown in 100k
−1
100k [Huber 1987]
tab. 1. The roughness elements represent different grades of sur-
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
face soiling, none in the baseline case, small disturbance in case α [d e g ]
of a thin tripwire or thin ZZ-tape, up to the extreme roughness of
(a) 75 k
a grit 40 sand paper covering the entire leading edge. This way
of simulating soiling was used in several publications in litera-
ture [14–17]. The heights are chosen to be in the range of typical 1.5
environmental blade surface soiling, e.g. insect related rough- 1
C l [- ]

ness found on wind turbine blades is in the range of 0.5 mm to 0.5

0.9 mm [5]. 0
−0.5 140k
Each experiment covers a range of α = ±30 deg at five dif-
200k
ferent Reynolds numbers: 50 k, 75 k, 100 k, 140 k, and 200 k, . −1
200k [Bastedo 1986]
The results are corrected for solid and wake blockage based on −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
the corrections suggested by Barlow et al. [18] because of the α [d e g ]
relative high angles of attack within the closed test section. Nev- (b) 200 k
ertheless, the blockage is at ±30 deg with 17 % higher than the
recommended maximum of 10 % [18]. FIGURE 3. FX 63-137 : Validation against literature polars

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 is fully attached to FX 63-137 airfoil down to a Reynolds number
FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000 of 100 k with an cl,max > 1.6. The lift is nearly constant within
FX: Re=100000 the range of α ∈ [10; 18] deg, which Bastedo et al. [20] found as
1
FX: Re=140000 well in their experiments and is caused by the proceeding trailing
FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]

0.5 edge stall. Laminar leading edge stall occurs at Reynolds num-
0 bers of 50 k. The 75 k polar shows a region in which the flow
obviously reattaches and forms a closed separation bubble. This
−0.5
leads to a step change in cl .
−1 Fig. 5 visualizes the results of some XFOIL simulations for
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
the FX 63-137 airfoil at Reynolds number 75 k. They reveal a
α [d e g ] separation bubble at the pressure side for small angles of attack
which decreases with increasing α. The separation bubble at the
(a) FX 63-137 suction side moves upstream with increasing angle. At 10 deg in
fig. 5(c) the separation bubble on the suction side is closed and
AH: Re=050000
1.5 AH: Re=075000
the trailing edge stall begins. The step change in lift, which is
AH: Re=100000 visible in fig. 4(a), seems to be a combination of the collapsing
1
AH: Re=140000 pressure side separation bubble and the closing of the suction
AH: Re=200000
C l [- ]

0.5 side bubble. The trailing edge stall continuously proceeds until
0 the onset of leading edge stall, visible in fig. 5(e)
The AH 93-W-174 stalls at all Reynolds numbers below
−0.5
200 k at negative AoA. The effects of the turbulent reattach-
−1 ment are visible with increasing angles. Fig. 4(b) shows that
the AH 93-W-174’s behavior is comparable to the FX 63-137 re-
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
α [d e g ] garding stall and reattachment at 75 k but the laminar stall and
the turbulent reattachment at higher AoA appears even for the
(b) AH 93-W-174 higher Reynolds numbers. The Eppler-338 profile in fig. 4(c)
performs better than the AH 93-W-174 at 140 k but fully stalls
EP: Re=050000 for all smaller Reynolds numbers.
1.5 EP: Re=075000
EP: Re=100000
1
EP: Re=140000
EP: Re=200000 Zigzag Tape
C l [- ]

0.5
The zigzag tape is often used in experiments if you want
0
to trip the boundary layer or to remove laminar effects, e.g. to
−0.5 improve Reynolds independence. Fig. 6 shows the effects of a
−1 zigzag-tape on the performance of the FX 63-137 -1ex. The po-
lars in fig. 6(a) reveal that the flow around the airfoil with the
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30 0.2 mm thick ZZ-tape at x/c = 0.1 stays attached for Re = 75 k.
α [d e g ]
The scheme of laminar separation at lower angles of attack and
(c) Eppler-338 turbulent reattachment at higher angles is now visible for the 50 k
polar, which was fully separated in the baseline configuration in
FIGURE 4. Baseline lift polars fig. 4(a). The maximum lift and the stall angle are not affected
by the thin ZZ-tape at x/c = 0.1. The influence on the 50 k po-
lar is not visible any more if the tape is positioned 5 % further
data matches the literature references. The 100 k measurement downstream as shown in fig. 6(b) whereas the other polars appear
differ minimal compared to the data of Huber and Mueller [19] nearly unchanged. Increasing the height of the ZZ-tape reduces
in fig. 3(a) and finally the deviation between the 200 k datasets the lift in all cases. Although the maximum lift coefficient is still
shown in fig. 3(b) is optimal if we keep in mind that we investi- around cl ≈ 1.6 in fig. 6(c) the lift curve shows a deficit within
gate a modified FX 63-137 profile. the range of α ∈ [5; 15] deg.
Additional XFOIL [21] simulations showed that all three air- The AH 93-W-174 is a high Reynolds profile investigated
foils of interest have laminar separation bubbles which can cause under off-design conditions. As already discussed, just the 200 k
laminar stall. Fig. 4 shows the baselines of all three airfoils for all baseline polar in fig. 4(b) represented an attached flow. The ZZ-
five Reynolds numbers. The lift polar in fig. 4(a) reveals that flow tape should reduce the low Reynolds effects. The experiments

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 FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
FX: Re=100000
1
FX: Re=140000
(a) 3 deg (Cl, XFOIL = 1.1) FX: Re=200000

C l [- ]
0.5

−0.5

−1

−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30

α [d e g ]

(a) ZZ 0.20@0.10 c

(b) 7 deg (Cl, XFOIL = 1.6)

FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
FX: Re=100000
1
FX: Re=140000
FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]
0.5

−0.5

−1

−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30

(c) 10 deg (Cl, XFOIL = 1.7) α [d e g ]

(b) ZZ 0.20@0.15 c

FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
FX: Re=100000
1
FX: Re=140000
FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]

0.5

−0.5
(d) 13 deg (Cl, XFOIL = 1.6)
−1

−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30

α [d e g ]

(c) ZZ 0.75@0.10 c

FIGURE 6. FX 63-137 : ZZ-tape influence

(e) 24 deg (Cl, XFOIL = 1.5)

FIGURE 5. FX 63-137 : XFOIL Pressure distribution at Re = 75 k

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 revealed that the thin tape delayed laminar stall at low AoA and
FX: Re=050000
the reattachment starts earlier at Re = 140 k if positioned at 10 % 1.5 FX: Re=075000
chord. The 15 % chordwise position seems to be a bit more ef- FX: Re=100000
1
fective because the airfoil reaches higher cl around five degree at FX: Re=140000
FX: Re=200000

C l [- ]
140 k compared to the 10 % chord tape. Nevertheless, all config- 0.5
urations have less maximum lift compared to the baseline. This 0
is especially evident for the configurations using the higher ZZ-
−0.5
tape at 10 %. The disturbance is obviously too strong and the
flow seems to detach directly behind the tape. −1
The Eppler-338 profile does not perform as good as the −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
FX 63-137 profile but the thin ZZ-tape keeps the flow longer α [d e g ]
attached compared to the baseline case. The airfoil stalls for
Re = 100 k as well as 75 k beyond α = 13 deg if positioned at (a) Trip wire 0.20@0.10 c
x/c = 0.10. Stall starts far below this angle if the tape is at
FX: Re=050000
15 % chord. The laminar stall seem to occur upstream or di- 1.5 FX: Re=075000
rectly at the tape and thus the influence is reduced. Nonethe- FX: Re=100000
1
less, the stall behavior is different compared to the other profiles. FX: Re=140000
FX: Re=200000

C l [- ]
The flow around the Eppler-338 keeps attached until stall oc- 0.5
curs while laminar separation and the turbulent reattachment at 0
higher angles of attack were found for FX 63-137 as well as for
−0.5
AH 93-W-174 -1ex. Nevertheless, the Eppler-338 reaches higher
AoA beyond 16 deg only for the two highest Reynolds numbers. −1
The increase of tape height is penalized by a reduction in lift of
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
approximately ∆cl ≈ 0.5. α [d e g ]

(b) Trip wire 0.20@0.15 c

Trip Wire
The trip wire is more a two than three-dimensional rough- FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
ness element compared to the ZZ-tape discussed in the paragraph
FX: Re=100000
before. Finding the proper position as well as the optimal heights 1
FX: Re=140000
of trip wires is, nevertheless, difficult if you want to achieve a de- FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]

0.5
fined tripping effect [19]. The defined laminar turbulent tripping
0
is not the focus of the present study. The wire serves only as a
linear roughness element, thus the positions and heights are cho- −0.5
sen to be as close as possible to the ZZ-tape configurations to −1
reduce the variety of parameters.
The results of the FX 63-137 profile equipped with a trip −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
α [d e g ]
wire are shown in fig. 7. The lift polars of all Reynolds numbers
were altered by the wire compared to the baseline in fig. 4(a). (c) Trip wire 0.72@0.10 c
The polars of the thin wire configuration at x/c = 0.10 are nearly
Reynolds independent to differ regarding stall angle. Fig. 7(a) FIGURE 7. FX 63-137 : Trip wire influence
indicates the lower the Reynolds number the earlier stall occurs.
The wire further downstream, at x/c = 0.15, causes a reduc-
tion in lift coefficients of up to ∆cl ≈ 0.5 for the lowest Re which duced. The lift within this region is consequently reduced.
is plotted in fig. 7(b). The wire apparently changes the entire flow While the baseline of the AH 93-W-174 showed the laminar
in this regime, which can e.g. be an alternation of the separation stall and reattachment behavior, fig. 8 reveals the contrary behav-
bubble. A detailed analysis of this effect has to be done using ior for Re = 75 k. The airfoil stalls at α = 12 deg and cl drops by
pressure measurement which were not done within this study. ∆cl > 0.5 but the lift jumps back to cl,max if α is further increased.
The change in the flow diminishes with increasing inflow ve- This is even visible if the wire thickness is increased but in this
locity what results in a nearly identical 200 k polar compared to case the lift decreases only for α = 14 deg. Obviously the wire
the upstream position. The maximum lift of cl ≈ 1.6 was not triggers stall within this AoA region and the flow reattaches at
changed using the trip wires but the slope below 10 deg was re- higher angles. Pressure measurements would give further insight

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 AH: Re=050000 FX: Re=050000
1.5 AH: Re=075000 1.5 FX: Re=075000
AH: Re=100000 FX: Re=100000
1 1
AH: Re=140000 FX: Re=140000
AH: Re=200000 FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]

C l [- ]
0.5 0.5

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1 −1

−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30 −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30

α [d e g ] α [d e g ]

(a) Grit 100 @±0.10 c

FIGURE 8. AH 93-W-174 : Trip wire 0.20@0.15 c
FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
FX: Re=100000
into this phenomenon but were not done within this study. 1
FX: Re=140000
The linear roughness simulated by the trip wire reduces the FX: Re=200000

C l [- ]
0.5
maximum lift of the Eppler-338 for all configurations but in-
creasing the height at 10 % chord reduced cl,max by 0.5. Nev- 0
ertheless, with this configuration the lift polar was Reynolds in- −0.5
dependent with a stall angle of α = 10 deg. The laminar stall at
−1
small Reynolds numbers of the Eppler-338 was delayed by ap-
plying any wire configuration. −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
α [d e g ]

Sand Paper (b) Grit 100 @±0.15 c

The roughness elements discussed so far represent linear
disturbances. Pechlivanoglou et al. [5] showed that even brand FX: Re=050000
1.5 FX: Re=075000
new blades can have manufacturing errors that resemble trip FX: Re=100000
lines. Additionally they presented field cases in which the com- 1
FX: Re=140000
plete leading edge was covered in sand. Within the experiments FX: Re=200000
C l [- ]

0.5
presented in this paper this distributed strong roughness is rep-
0
resented by sand paper covering the entire leading edge region.
The grit is selected to represent the heights already investigated −0.5
within the previous experiments using ZZ-tape and trip wires. −1
The grit 100 fits the 0.2 mm tripping and the grit 40 corresponds
to 0.72 mm. −30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
α [d e g ]
The massive roughness was expected to cause a massive
drop in the lift polars compared to the baseline configuration. (c) Grit 40 @±0.10 c
Nevertheless, the grit 100 sand paper covering the leading edge
of the FX 63-137 profile from 10 % chord on the pressure side FIGURE 9. FX 63-137 : Sand paper influence
up to 10 % on the suction side behaves more like a simple trip
wire with a thickness of 0.72 mm mounted at x/c = 0.1. This
becomes obvious when comparing figs. 9(a) and 7(c). The max- until it reaches a maximum for Re = 100 k and decreases after-
imum lift coefficient of the 200 k polar is slightly reduced while wards. Increasing the roughness up to grit 40 results in an in-
lift increases for the lowest Reynolds number. The correspond- verse performance. The 50 k and 75 k polars show an even higher
ing stall angle differs just by 1 deg and in both cases a high angle cl than the baseline at 200 k. This performance boost degrades
of attack regime exists in which the airfoil performs better under with increasing flow speed and results, in the 200 k case, in a lift
Re = 140 k than at the highest Re. deficit of ∆cl ≈ 0.4 compared to the baseline. This behavior was
This effect is enhanced if the sand paper covers the lead- considered to be erroneous at first sight but the same effect was
ing edge up to 15 % chord. Fig. 9(b) reveals that the FX 63-137 found for the other airfoils as well. The measurements with the
lift performance improves with increasing the Reynolds number Eppler-338 and AH 93-W-174 profile confirmed that this appears

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 to be a physical effect and no error. nominal power levels. Further details of the turbine, e.g. align-
ment of airfoil sections, as well as of the simulation parameters
can be found in the publication of Holst et al. [8].
General Discussion
The simulation is done using the wind turbine simulation
Within the experiments with all configurations the different code QBlade [23–25]. The polars presented in the section be-
sensitivity to roughness becomes obvious. All three airfoils are fore, are loaded into the simulation and extrapolated at 360 deg
of course affected but there are differences. angle of attack by means of the Montgomerie method [26]. The
The AH 93-W-174 is a high performance utility scale wind blade is simulated with the steady state BEM method of QBlade
turbine profile, which was investigated under conditions far be- using the Glauert correction for turbulent wake state, as well as
yond the design point. At Re = 200 k the airfoil was well be- the Prandtl tip and root corrections [27]. The drag data are of
haved, nevertheless the polars were unpredictable for all con- course part of the simulations even if not presented within this
figurations at lower wind speeds. In most of the cases a lam- paper. The additional discussion of the drag data would exceed
inar separation was visible, which was followed by a turbulent the limits of a conference paper. The turbine was simulated for
reattachment if the angle of attack was further increased. The maximum turbine flexibility assuming only the 300 rpm limit of
measurements revealed also the contrary behavior for some con- the generator. This was done for better comparability of results.
figurations when the primary attached flow stalled and reattached Figs. 12 and 13 summarize the simulation results of selected
again if the angle was increased by just a few degrees. This is un- configurations. The extreme roughness of a grit 40 sand paper is
acceptable for wind turbine application and consequently leads, also included as well as the thin trip wire or ZZ-tape at x/c = 0.10.
as expected, to the conclusion that high Reynolds airfoils are in- The 200 k polars were taken into account within the calculations
appropriate for sHAWT design. because the most frequent operational point coincides with this
The Eppler-338 did not show any of these separation-
reattachment behavior. The lift polars indicate that the airfoil
keeps its state if stalled once. This is preferable if you want
to design a stall regulated turbine. A turbulent reattachment
would increase torque, which is unfavorable and would enhance
loads onto the turbine. Nevertheless, the performance of the
Eppler-338 significantly degrades under the impact of surface
soiling.
The FX 63-137 was the profile less sensitive. The maximum
lift was in most cases cl,max ≈ 1.5 − 1.6. Only the case with mas-
sive grit 40 roughness up to 15 % chord resulted in a lift deficit
for the 200 k reference. A good performance under rough con-
ditions secures a reliable sHAWT in the field. The FX 63-137
profile is therefore used for the simulation of a sHAWT in the
next section to study the effect of roughness not only based on
polars but also based on the analysis of an entire turbine.

FIGURE 10. Blade of the sHAWT [8]

SIMULATION OF A SMALL HAWT
The turbine used to investigate the effect of roughness is the 30
same used by Holst et al. [8] to study the effect of passive flow
control on sHAWT. It is a three bladed turbine based on the blade Twist [deg]
0.4 20
Chord [m]

shown in fig. 10. The entire blade is based on the FX 63-137 air-
foil. The chord distribution is optimized considering Schmitz
principle [22] and twist is optimized to locally operate at the 0.2 10
best glide ratio. The maximum twist is, nonetheless, limited to
30 deg. Chord and twist were afterwards smoothed to achieve
a gradual transition among the sections, shown in fig. 11, and 0 0
hence the circulation gradually changes. 0 0.5 1 1.5
Spanwise position [m]
The horizontal axis turbine is a hybrid stall model which
uses variable speed permanent magnet generators. A RPM con-
trol ensures the load and power management at nominal and post FIGURE 11. Chord and twist distribution [8]

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 8000 ing wind turbines in high turbulence areas, such as rooftops or
Baseline
Grit 100 @10%
Grit 100 @15%
forests [4], tab. 2 shows an additional problem – Roughness re-
6000 Grit 40 @10% duces massively the AEP of the wind turbine. Even the smallest
Grit 40 @15%
Power [W]

Wire 0.20 @10% roughness elements cause a AEP deficit of more than 10 % and
Wire 0.72 @10%
4000 ZZ 0.20 @10% the case of massive surface soiling could even result in a loss of
ZZ 0.75 @10%
50 % of the energy production.
2000

TABLE 2. Annual energy production (AEP)

0
0 5 10 15 20
Wind speed [m/s] Configuration AEP* Deviation

Baseline 12005 kWh

FIGURE 12. Power curves
Grit 100 x/c = 0.10 9919 kWh -17.4 %
1000 Grit 100 x/c = 0.15 9815 kWh -18.2 %
Baseline
Grit 100 @10%
800 Grit 100 @15% Grit 40 x/c = 0.10 7116 kWh -40.7 %
Grit 40 @10%
Grit 40 @15%
Grit 40 x/c = 0.15
Thrust [N]

600 Wire 0.20 @10% 5908 kWh -50.8 %

Wire 0.72 @10%
ZZ 0.20 @10% Wire 0.20 x/c = 0.10 10596 kWh -11.7 %
400 ZZ 0.75 @10%

Wire 0.72 x/c = 0.10 9447 kWh -21.3 %

200
ZZ 0.20 x/c = 0.10 10718 kWh -10.7 %
0
0 5 10 15 20 ZZ 0.75 x/c = 0.10 9991 kWh -16.8 %
Wind speed [m/s]
* Based on Weibull distribution with k = 2, λ = 9 and a
FIGURE 13. Thrust curves turbine assuming only a 300 rpm limit of the generator

Reynolds number according to a typical Reyleigh distribution.

The power curves in fig. 12 illustrate the massive effect of surface
roughness. The linear tripping of wires and ZZ-tape reduces the
peak power up to 1500 W in the case of the thick ZZ-tape at
10 % chord. Nevertheless, the wind speed of maximum power
keeps constant around 18 m/s. If sand or insects accumulate at
the leading edge of the profile, as simulated by the grit 100 sand
paper, the maximum power further decreases to 3.7 kW instead
of 6 kW in the baseline case. The power declines with increasing
accumulation of surface soiling. The grit 40 extreme cases show
that the maximum power is reduced to a third.
The power curve is also part of the analysis. According to
the World Wind Energy Association the small wind sector is
growing and the demand is increasing. Nonetheless, costs and
the return on investment are part the driving factors as well as the
policies which influences feed in tariffs and proper standards [2].
Therefore, tab. 2 contains the AEP for each configuration and the
corresponding deviation from the baseline case.
The annual energy production is the fact that finally decides
if the turbine is profitable or a bad investment. A generally
profitable turbine may change into a bad investment if the tur-
bine is subjected to debris and design is sensitive to roughness.
While the International Energy Agency asks for research regard-
CONCLUSION
The present paper analyzes the effect of blade surface soil-
ing with respect to small horizontal axis wind turbines. There-
fore, extensive wind tunnel experiments were conducted to sim-
ulate various stages of debris for three different airfoils. The ef-
fects were discussed comparing lift polars of two low Reynolds
airfoils as well as one high Reynolds utility scale wind turbine
profile. Experiments revealed lift deficits of up to 50 % and con-
firmed the importance of a proper profile selection. The analysis
highlighted the problems that occur if high Reynolds profiles are
used in low Reynolds regime.
The polars of the high performance low Reynolds airfoil
FX 63-137 are used to simulate a sHAWT using the simulation
code QBlade. The simulations revealed the influence of rough-
ness on the peak power as well as on the annual energy produc-
tion, which was reduced by 50 % in the worst case scenario.
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