Numerical Simulation and Wind Tunnel Investigation on Static Characteristics of VAWT Rotor Starter with Lift-Drag Combined Structure

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 19; p. 6167
• Main Authors: Feng, Fang, Tong, Guoqiang, Ma, Yunfei, Li, Yan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2021
• Subjects: Aerodynamic characteristics; Aerodynamics; Alternative energy sources; Clean energy; Climate change; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer applications; Drag; Economic development; Energy efficiency; Energy resources; Fluid dynamics; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Hydrodynamics; lift-drag combined starter; Mathematical models; numerical simulation; Research methodology; Simulation; starting characteristics; Static characteristics; Tip speed; Torque; Turbine blades; Turbines; Velocity; vertical axis wind turbine; Vertical axis wind turbines; Viscosity; Wind direction; Wind power; Wind speed; wind tunnel test; Wind tunnel testing; Wind tunnels
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en14196167

In order to get rid of the impact of the global financial crisis and actively respond to global climate change, it has become a common choice for global economic development to develop clean energy such as wind energy, improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With the advantages of simple structure, unnecessary facing the wind direction, and unique appearance, the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) attracts extensive attention in the field of small and medium wind turbines. The lift-type VAWT exhibits outstanding aerodynamic characteristics at a high tip speed ratio, while the starting characteristics are generally undesirable at a low wind speed; thus, how to improve the starting characteristics of the lift-type VAWT has always been an important issue. In this paper, a lift-drag combined starter (LDCS) suitable for lift-type VAWT was proposed to optimize the starting characteristics of lift-type VAWT. With semi-elliptical drag blades and lift blades equipped on the middle and rear part outside the starter, the structure is characterized by lift-drag combination, weakening the adverse effect of the starter with semi-elliptical drag blades alone on the output performance of the original lift-type VAWT and improving the characteristics of the lift-drag combined VAWT. The static characteristic is one of the important starting characteristics of the wind turbine. The rapid development of computational fluid dynamics has laid a solid material foundation for VAWT. Thus the static characteristics of the LDCS with different numbers of blades were investigated by conducting numerical simulation and wind tunnel tests. The results demonstrated that the static torque coefficient of LDCS increased significantly with the increased incoming wind speed. The average value of the static torque coefficient also increased significantly. This study can provide guidelines for the research of lift-drag combined wind turbines.