Performance of a Cross-Flow Wind Turbine Located Above a Windbreak Fence

The performance of a cross-flow wind turbine located above a windbreak fence (snowbreak fence) and the associated velocity fields were investigated through wind tunnel tests. The effects of the amount of vertical clearance between the wind turbine and the fence, the percentage of the fence area that is nonporous, and the rotational direction of the turbine were examined. In addition, a two-dimensional numerical flow analysis of the cross-flow wind turbine above the fence was performed using the CFD software ANSYS FLUENT 13.0. The fence and wind turbine models were built to a scale of 1:5; the porous fence model had a height of h = 500 mm, and the diameter of the wind turbine was 80 mm. It was found that the relationship between the inflow velocity into the clearance gap and the rotational direction of the turbine affects the power coefficient of the turbine.