Cover
Vol. 24 No. 1 (2024)

Published: February 29, 2024

Pages: 81-89

Original Article

A Numerical Study of Blade Geometry Effects in a Vertical-Axes Wind Turbines

G. Omer-Alsultan 1 Ahmad A. Alsahlani 1
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
History
  • Received: November 9, 2023
  • Revised: December 25, 2023
  • Accepted: January 7, 2024
  • Available Online: February 15, 2024
DOI

https://doi.org/10.33971/bjes.24.1.9

Abstract

Several geometrical elements influence the aerodynamic properties of the Darrieus vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). Many extant studies have examined properties, such as solidity, pitching axis position ( x /c), length of chord (c), blade quantity (N), diameter (d) of the rotor, and aspect ratio. However, not many have examined the shape of the airfoil (AF), which is a vital property that remains to be thoroughly investigated. Therefore, this present study used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate many airfoils blade characteristics, such as blade thickness (BT), maximum camber ratio (MCR), MCR location (MCRL), and air speed (AS), to determine their impact on VAWT performance. The results demonstrate a blade thickness BT of 10 to 12%, MCR of 0 to 22%, and MCRL of 24 to 23% yield a comparatively high coefficient of power, adequate optimal blade rotation to airspeed ratio (TSR), broader operational area, and high band efficiency while air velocities of 15 to 10% yield a comparatively higher power coefficient.

Keywords

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