Numerical Simulation of a Fluid Flow Inside a Novel Ducted Wind Turbine

A novel ducted wind turbine, referred to as the Wind Tower technology, for capturing wind power in either residential or commercial scale applications is developed. A mathematical model of the fluid flow inside the tower is derived and the experimental tests have been conducted on a 1/8^th prototype. Proposing an optimum design under the consideration of a maximum output power generation and a minimum cost of energy, which leads to a maximum return on investment, is a big challenge in developing the Wind Tower technology. Numerical simulation of the fluid flow inside the tower helps to make a more precise and accurate estimation of the flow characteristics at different sections of the tower. Hence, a two-dimensional single-nozzle Wind Tower is modeled to perform the computational fluid dynamics calculation. This provides the effect of major components of the Wind Tower, including the inlet and the outlet dimensions, and the Wind Tower structure configurations on the flow characteristics going through the tower at laminar steady-state condition. The average velocity values at the outlet due to changing the Wind Tower component configurations are measured. The results provide the optimum dimension ranges of the major Wind Tower components; these values would be further refined at a specific site with its certain wind characteristics.