Lab-Scale Wind Tunnel Experiment Test of Wind Turbine Blades for Performance Evaluation

This study evaluates the performance of a HAWT blade model using the lab-scale wind tunnel experiment. The small-scale wind turbine blade model has been designed based on the newly developed airfoil, KA2. A 3-blade rotor, based on the blade model, is tested using the digital wind tunnel. The performance is estimated by measuring the rotor-induced shaft torque. To estimate the performance properly, two different methods have been used depending on the blade rotation speed. Test results are compared with the theoretical estimation by BEM. This study provides the methodology to the performance test of wind turbine blades using lab-scale experiment. Moreover, results represent the applicability of the KA2 airfoil to wind turbine blades.