Modern large steam turbines for power generation are required to operate much more flexibly than ever before, due to the increasing use of intermittent renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. This has posed great challenges to the design of LP steam turbine exhaust systems, which are critical to recovering the leaving energy that is otherwise lost. In previous studies, the design had been focused on the exhaust diffuser with or without the collector. Although the interaction between the last stage and the exhaust hood has been identified for a long time, little attention has been paid to the last stage blading in the exhaust system’s design process, when the machine frequently operates at part-load conditions. This study focuses on the design of LP exhaust systems considering both the last stage and the exhaust diffuser, over a wide operating range. A 1/10 th scale air test rig was built to validate the CFD tool for flow conditions representative of an actual machine at part-load conditions, characterised by highly swirling flows entering the diffuser. A numerical parametric study was performed to investigate the effect of both the diffuser geometry variation and restaggering the last stage rotor blades. Restaggering the rotor blades was found to be an effective way to control the level of leaving energy, as well as the flow conditions at the diffuser inlet, which influence the diffuser’s capability to recover the leaving energy. The benefits from diffuser resizing and rotor blade restaggering were shown to be relatively independent of each other, which suggests the two components can be designed separately. Last, the potentials of performance improvement by considering both the last stage rotor restaggering and the diffuser resizing were demonstrated by an exemplary design, which predicted an increase in the last stage power output of at least 1.5% for a typical 1000MW plant that mostly operates at part-load conditions.

As a renewable energy source, biogas produced from anaerobic digestion seems to play an important role in the energy market. Unlike wind and solar, which are intermittent, gas turbines fueled by biogas provide dispatchable renewable energy that can be ramped up and down to match the demand. If post-combustion carbon capture systems are implemented, they can also result in negative CO 2 emissions. However, one of the major challenges here is the energy needed for CO 2 chemical absorption in post-combustion capture, which is closely related to the concentration of CO 2 in the exhaust gas upstream of the capture unit. This paper presents an evaluation of the effects of biogas and exhaust gas recirculation use on the performance of the gas turbine cycle for post-combustion CO 2 capture application. The study is based on a combined heat and power micro gas turbine, Turbec T100, delivering 100kWe. The thermodynamic model of the gas turbine has been validated against experimental data obtained from test facilities in Norway and the United Kingdom. Based on the validated model, performance calculations for the baseline micro gas turbine (fueled by natural gas), biogas-fired cases and the cycle with exhaust gas recirculation have been carried out at various operational conditions and compared together. A wide range of biogas composition with varying methane content was assumed for this study. Necessary minor modifications to fuel valves and compressor were assumed to allow the engine operation with different biogas composition. The methodology and results are fully discussed in this paper.

Large penetration of non-programmable energy sources, such as wind, is a challenging issue for grid operators and quick ramping fossil fuel generators. Indeed, the variability and fluctuation of renewables (i.e. rapid change in generation over relatively short time periods) is increasing the need for regulating power. In this context and according to Authors knowledge, the innovative approach proposed in this study is to use a gas turbine equipped with continuous cooling in order to stabilize the power output generation of renewable generators. The gas turbine power boost, obtained thanks to inlet air cooling, will compensate for renewable generators underproduction. On the opposite, in case of renewable generators power output surplus, the excess of power is driven to a compressor chiller device for cold water storage, then used to chill gas turbine inlet air whenever needed. A detailed performance evaluation on the proposed system is carried out showing the influence of most important parameters (i.e. additional pressure losses introduced with the cooling device, gas turbine models and assumed derating coefficients, etc.). A feasibility analysis of the investigated system is presented for several case studies in case of wind generators (two different gas turbine models, different wind farm nameplate capacity, different power output set points), investigating the volume of tanks necessary to stabilize wind fluctuations.

A six-degree-of-freedom non-linear model is developed using Lagrange’s equation. The model is used to estimate transient fan-stage dynamic response during a fan-blade-out event in a turbo fan engine. The coupled degrees of freedom in the model include the fan whirl in the fan plane, the torsional response of the fan and low-pressure turbines (LPTs) about the engine centerline, the radial position of the released blade fragment, and the angular rotation of the trailing blade from its free state due to acceleration of the released blade. The released blade is assumed to slide radially outward along the trailing blade without friction. The external loading applied to the system includes fan imbalance, the remaining fan blades machining away the rub strip, rubbing of the blades with the fan case, and slowly-varying torques on the low pressure (LP) spool as engine performance degrades. The machining of the abradable imparts tangential loading on the fan blades as momentum is transferred to the liberated rub strip material. After application of the initial conditions including angular positions, angular velocities, released blade fragment position, and torsional wind-up, the governing equations are integrated forward in time from the instant the blade fragment is released. A reasonable match to test data is shown. Parameters affecting the fan-system response are varied to study the impact on fan peak lateral whirl amplitude, peak LP shaft torque, and peak loading on the trailing blade. It is found that the rub strip and mass eccentricity have the strongest influence on the LP shaft torsional loading. It is found that mass eccentricity has the largest influence on peak fan whirl. It is also found that released blade mass and attachment stiffness have the largest influence on the trailing blade loading.

The wind industry needs reliable and accurate airfoil polars to properly predict wind turbine performance, especially during the initial design phase. Medium- and low-fidelity simulations directly depend on the accuracy of the airfoil data and even more so if e.g. dynamic effects are modeled. This becomes crucial if the blades of a turbine operate under stalled conditions for a significant part of the turbine’s lifetime. In addition, the design process of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) needs data across the full range of angles of attack between 0 and 180 deg. Lift, drag and surface pressure distributions of a NACA 0021 airfoil equipped with surface pressure taps were investigated based on time-resolved pressure measurements. The present study discusses full range static polars and several dynamic sinusoidal pitching configurations covering two Reynolds numbers Re = 140k and 180 k, and different incidence ranges: near stall, post stall and deep stall. Various bi-stable flow phenomena are discussed based on high frequency measurements revealing large lift-fluctuations in the post and deep stall regime that exceed the maximum lift of the static polars and are not captured by averaged measurements. Detailed surface pressure distributions are discussed to provide further insight into the flow conditions and pressure development during dynamic motion. The experimental data provided within the present paper is dedicated to the scientific community for calibration and reference purposes, which in the future may lead to higher accuracy in performance predictions during the design process of wind turbines.

Gas turbine flexibility is key in markets with significant renewable energy resources. Operational load flexibility and fuel flexibility ensure the gas turbine remains competitive in supporting power generation in renewable markets. For applications where heat is required in support of a process industry the gas turbine offers an additional advantage. Alternate fuels such as hydrogen are generated as byproducts from chemical processing plants. Hydrogen also has the ability to be a ‘battery fuel’ as excess energy produced by wind and solar can be used to produce hydrogen through electrolysis. This work focuses on the retrofit and commercial introduction of significant quantities of hydrogen fuel into the gas supply of an existing commercial E-class gas turbine in Europe. The commercially operating plant provides combined heat (in the form of process steam) and power. The gas turbine operates with a lean premixed combustor without the need for diluent injection, and is able to operate flexibly with hydrogen mixed into the base natural gas fuel supply. The fuel mixing allows consumption of a chemical plant process gas resulting in positive economic and environmental benefit. This involves several considerations including combustor control/operation, safe flashback margin, emissions, stability and hardware durability. Enhancements to the control system through an automated combustor tuning package which is able to compensate real time for fluctuations in fuel gas constituents was implemented. Significant testing of the fuel flexible concept in a full scale high pressure combustor test facility was performed to ensure the desired increase in hydrogen consumption could be achieved. The experience, in addition to adaptations for field testing, was used to test and validate a new long term operational limit of 25% hydrogen content in the fuel. The success of the test campaign allows reduction in natural gas fuel consumption and cost, reduction in flaring of product waste gas, with a reduced power plant CO2 footprint. The development program and engine field testing substantiation are described in detail herein.

When a turbofan engine is taxing or taking-off, a vortex can form between ground surface and the intake. As the diameters of engines increase, intakes are closer to the ground and as a result the possibility of vortex ingestion is increasing. The vortex starts from the ground surface and enters the inlet at high rotating speed. It is likely to draw in hard material or dust from the ground, which leads to blade erosion or impact damage. This is harmful to the engine durability and safety. Besides the vortex, inlet flow separation could induce high level of blade vibration, or aerodynamic instability, such as rotating stall. Cross wind may also lead to both vortex and flow distortion, which is more challenging for engine stability. Therefore, vibration characteristics and forced response under vortex ingestion should be evaluated to ensure the stability and safety of the engine in design phase. This paper presents a computational study of the forced response of a wide-chord fan blade under vortex ingestion. A finite element model was built, and modal analysis was conducted to characterize the vibrating characteristics of the fan blade with a corresponding Campbell diagram. Transient simulations of vortex passing over the fan blade were conducted with and without the blade pre-vibration at the natural frequency of the first bending mode. The forced response level was evaluated under various conditions, including different hitting time and increasing intensity of vortex. Results showed that the ingested vortex is able to amplify the displacement and vibratory response to a significant level of 18% at most. Linear relation between vortex intensity and blade response was found. The results give a comprehensive prediction of forced response for a better blade design against vortex ingestion.

Heat exchange in air-cooled condensers (ACC) is achieved by forced convection of fresh air on bundle of tubes by means of forced-draft axial-flow fans. These fans are characterized by low solidity and low hub ratio, large diameters, relatively low rotational velocity, high efficiencies. This combination usually leads to fans with non-stalling characteristics, with pressure rise continuously rising when reducing the flow rate, at least in standard (ISO or AMCA) test rigs. In real-life installations, in fact, it is quite difficult to characterize these fans, due to the practical difficulties arising in setting up a proper test rig and to control the boundary conditions of the system, in particular the fan inflow conditions. Here we focus on a real-life setting of ACC, numerically simulated with URANS. In this work the fan is simulated with a Synthetic Blade Model presented in [1]. This model is derived from actuator disk theory, and allows to simulate the unsteady movement of the blades and compute a non-constant azimuthal distribution of lift and drag forces, partially accounting for non-constant deviation in the blade-to-blade passage, while drastically reducing the mesh requirements. In this way it is possible to model the shedding of wakes behind the blades and their interaction with the heat exchanger. The flow will be assumed to be incompressible, due to the low Mach number and heat transfer will be treated assuming temperature to be a passive scalar convected by the flow. Duty point of the fan and heat exchange in the ACC will be studied while inflow conditions, in order to account for free inflow with a constant velocity distribution as well as distortions due to lateral wind. Computations will be carried out on the Virtual Test Rig of developed at Sapienza within the OpenFOAM 2.3.x library with a URANS approach and k-ε closure.

The wind industry needs airfoil data for ranges of Angle of Attack (AoA) much wider than those of aviation applications, since large portions of the blades may operate in stalled conditions for a significant part of their lives. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are even more affected by this need, since data sets across the full incidence range of 180 degree are necessary for a correct performance prediction at different tip-speed ratios. However, the relevant technical literature lacks data in deep and post stall regions for nearly every airfoil. Within this context, the present study shows experimental and numerical results for the well-known NACA 0021 airfoil, which is often used for Darrieus VAWT design. Experimental data were obtained through dedicated wind tunnel measurements of a NACA 0021 airfoil with surface pressure taps, which provided further insight into the pressure coefficient distribution across a wide range of AoAs. The measurements were conducted at two different Reynolds numbers (Re = 140k and Re = 180k): each experiment was performed multiple times to ensure repeatability. Dynamic AoA changes were also investigated at multiple reduced frequencies. Moreover, dedicated unsteady numerical simulations were carried out on the same airfoil shape to reproduce both the static polars of the airfoil and some relevant dynamic AoA variation cycles tested in the experiments. The solved flow field was then exploited both to get further insight into the flow mechanisms highlighted by the wind tunnel tests and to provide correction factors to discard the influence of the experimental apparatus, making experiments representative of open-field behaviour. The present study is then thought to provide the scientific community with high quality, low-Reynolds airfoil data, which may enable in the near future a more effective design of Darrieus VAWTs.

Wind industry experiences a tremendous growth during the last few decades. As of the end of 2016, the worldwide total installed electricity generation capacity from wind power amounted to 486,790 MW, presenting an increase of 12.5% compared to the previous year. Nowadays wind turbine manufacturers tend to adopt new business models proposing total health monitoring services and solutions, using regular inspections or even embedding sensors and health monitoring systems within each unit. Regularly planned or permanent monitoring ensures a continuous power generation and reduce maintenance costs, prompting specific actions when necessary. The core of wind turbine drivetrain is usually a complicated planetary gearbox. One of the main gearbox components which are commonly responsible for the machinery breakdowns are rolling element bearings. The failure signs of an early bearing damage are usually weak compared to other sources of excitation (e.g. gears). Focusing towards the accurate and early bearing fault detection, a plethora of signal processing methods have been proposed including spectral analysis, synchronous averaging and enveloping. Envelope analysis is based on the extraction of the envelope of the signal, after filtering around a frequency band excited by impacts due to the bearing faults. Kurtogram has been proposed and widely used as an automatic methodology for the selection of the filtering band, being on the other hand sensible in outliers. Recently an emerging interest has been focused on modelling rotating machinery signals as cyclostationary, which is a particular class of non-stationary stochastic processes. Cyclic Spectral Correlation and Cyclic Spectral Coherence have been presented as powerful tools for condition monitoring of rolling element bearings, exploiting their cyclostationary behaviour. In this work a new diagnostic tool is introduced based on the integration of the Cyclic Spectral Coherence along a frequency band that contains the diagnostic information. A special procedure is proposed in order to automatically select the filtering band, maximizing the corresponding fault indicators. The effectiveness of the methodology is validated using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) wind turbine gearbox vibration condition monitoring benchmarking dataset which includes various faults with different levels of diagnostic complexity.

As the landscape of energy production in Europe and other developed countries undergoes a rapid shift towards renewable energies, such as offshore wind, the use of HVDC (High-Voltage Direct Current) technology is increasing. HVDC converter stations have been reported to potentially cause sub-synchronous torsional interaction (SSTI) with turbo-generators in the grid. This phenomenon implies a negative electrical damping at the turbo-generator which may result in non-attenuating torsional vibrations. This is especially an issue in power grids where the close proximity of the power stations to the HVDC converter stations cannot be avoided. Therefore, in order to ensure safe and stable operation, monitoring of torsional vibrations is required. In this article, a proof-of-concept study of touchless torque sensing at a nuclear power train in Gösgen, Switzerland, is presented. All three sub-synchronous natural frequencies were detected by the torque sensor during a load rejection test and show very good agreement with theoretical predictions based on finite element calculations. Possibilities to devise monitoring and eventually protection systems for torsional vibrations based on this technology are also discussed.

The growing global energy demand is facing concerns raised by increasing greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly CO 2 . Despite substantial progress in the field of renewable energy in recent years, quick balancing responses and back-up services are still necessary to maintain the grid load and stability, due to increased penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind. In a scenario of natural gas availability, gas turbine power may be a substitute for back-up/balancing load. Rapid start-up and shut down, high ramp rate, and low emissions and maintenance have been achieved in commercial gas turbine cycles. This industry still needs innovative cycle configurations, e.g. exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), to achieve higher system performance and lower emissions in the current competitive power generation market. Together with reduced NO x emissions, EGR cycle provides an exhaust gas with higher CO 2 concentration compared to the simple gas turbine/combined cycle, favorable for post-combustion carbon capture. This paper presents an evaluation of EGR potential for improved gas turbine cycle performance and integration with a post-combustion CO 2 capture process. It also highlights features of two software tools with different capabilities for performance analysis of gas turbine cycles, integrated with post-combustion capture. The study is based on a combined heat and power micro gas turbine (MGT), Turbec T100, of 100kWe output. Detailed models for the baseline MGT and amine capture plant were developed in two software tools, IPSEpro and Aspen Hysys. These models were validated against experimental work conducted at the UK PACT National Core Facilities. Characteristics maps for the compressor and the turbine were used for the MGT modeling. The performance indicators of systems with and without EGR, and when varying the EGR ratio and ambient temperature, were calculated and are presented in this paper.

With the rise of ultra high bypass ratio turbofan and shorter and slimmer inlet geometries compared to classical architectures, designers face new challenges as nacelle and fan design cannot anymore be addressed independently. This paper reviews CFD methods developed to simulate inlet-fan interactions and suitable for industrial design cycles. In addition to the reference isolated fan and nacelle models, the methodologies evaluated in this study consist of two fan modeling approaches, an actuator disc and body-force source terms. The configuration is a modern turbofan with a high bypass ratio under cross-wind. Results are compared to experimental data. As to be predicted, the body-force modeling approach enables early inlet reattachment. In addition, it provides a representative flow deviation across the fan zone which enables performance and stability assessments.

The Savonius rotor appears to be particularly promising for the small-scale applications because of its design simplicity, good starting ability, and insensitivity to wind directions. There has been a growing interest in recent times to harness wind energy in an efficient manner by developing newer blade profiles of Savonius rotor. The overlap ratio ( OR ), one of the important geometric parameters, plays a crucial role in the turbine performance. In a recent study, an elliptical blade profile with a sectional cut angle ( θ ) of 47.5° has demonstrated its superior performance when set at an OR = 0.20. However, this value of OR is ideal for a semicircular profile, and therefore, requires further investigation to arrive at the optimum overlap ratio for the elliptical profile. In view of this, the present study attempts to make a systemic numerical study to arrive at the optimum OR of the elliptical profile having sectional cut angle, θ = 47.5°. The 2D unsteady simulation is carried out around the elliptical profile considering various overlap ratios in the range of 0.0 to 0.30. The continuity, unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) equations and two equation eddy viscosity SST (Shear Stress transport) k-ω model are solved by using the commercial finite volume method (FVM) based solver ANSYS Fluent. The torque and power coefficients are calculated as a function of tip speed ratio ( TSR ) and at rotating conditions. The total pressure, velocity magnitude and turbulence intensity contours are obtained and analyzed to arrive at the intended objective. The numerical simulation demonstrates an improved performance of the elliptical profile at an OR = 0.15.

As an integrated system, turbofan engine airworthiness certification is a complex network because design, operating conditions and multi-disciplines are interlaced. Inlet compatibility specified in FAR regulations is to demonstrate satisfactory of engine operating characteristics throughout the flight envelope, which can be affected by engine installation and operation conditions. One limited operating condition is the high crosswind on the ground. Flow separated at engine inlet, unsteady and non-uniform, passing through the diffuser to the fan face, stimulated the fan blade at a broad frequency range, which could lead to high cycle fatigue. A ground crosswind test was conducted by an airplane company to demonstrate the engine inlet compatibility with engine mounted on the rear of the aircraft under various crosswind conditions [1] including 90-degree crosswind, quarterly headwind (315-degree) and quarterly tailwind (225-degree). Results showed that among all tested ambient wind conditions, the engine was the least stable under quarterly tailwind (225-degree). To predict the fan blade response driven by inlet separation, a process of evaluating inlet separation induced stimulus was illustrated in this paper. The stimuli were classified in two parts, i) synchronous stimulus induced by inlet distortion, and ii) non-synchronous stimulus induced by turbulence. Vibration of a wide-chord fan blade was evaluated by modal analysis and Campbell diagram. Test data of total pressure distortion at fan face were analyzed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and the excitations in frequency domain were applied to fan blade for harmonic analysis. Results revealed that the synchronous excitation caused the blade resonating at an elevated stress level, as expected. This study provided a preliminary assessment and a better understanding of fan aeromechanics, when the engine is operating at the unsteady, unstable, and non-uniform flow environment. Discussions of how to control and how to decrease the vibration level were given in the study.

South Africa’s coal-fired power stations use super heated steam to drive generator turbines. In arid regions, air-cooled condensers (ACCs) are used to condense the process steam. These ACCs consists of an array of over 200 axial flow fans, each driven by a motor via a reduction gearbox. Distorted fan inlet air flow conditions cause transient blade loading, which results in variations in output shaft bending and torque. A measurement project was conducted where the input and output shaft of such a gearbox were instrumented with strain gauges and wireless bridge amplifiers. Gearbox shaft speed and vibration were also measured. Torsional and bending strains were measured for a variety of operational conditions, where correlations were seen between gearbox loading and wind conditions. The input side experienced no unexpected loads from the motor or changing wind conditions, whereas output shaft loading was influenced by the latter. Digital filters were applied to identify specific bending components, such as the influence of fan hub misalignment and dynamic blade loading. Reverse loading of the gearbox was measured during the fan stop period, and vibration analysis revealed torsional and gearbox vibrations. This investigation documented reliable full scale ACC gearbox loads.

Gas Turbines (GT) are widely used for power generation in offshore oil and gas facilities, due to their high reliability, compactness and dynamic response capabilities. Small heavy duty and aeroderivative units in multiple arrangements are typically used to offer larger load flexibility, but limited efficiency of such machines is the main drawback. A solution to enhance the system performance, also in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) arrangement, is the implementation of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems at the bottom of the gas turbines. Moreover, the resulting GT-ORC combined cycle could be further integrated with additional renewable sources. Offshore wind technology is rapidly developing and floating wind turbines could be combined with offshore GT-ORC based power plants to satisfy the platform load. The pioneering stand alone power system, for an oil and gas platform, examined in this paper comprises a 10MW offshore wind farm and three gas turbines rated for 16.5MW, each one coupled with an 4.5MW ORC module. The ORC main parameters are observed under different wind power fluctuations. Due to the non-programmable availability of wind and power demand, the part-load and dynamic characteristics of the system should be investigated. A dynamic model of the power system based on first principles is used, developed in the Modelica language. The model is integrated with a time series-based model of two offshore wind mills. Various thermodynamic indexes, available in the literature, are identified and evaluated to compare the actual combined heat and power performances of single components and of the overall integrated system in the considered wind scenarios.

A modern energy system based on renewable energy like wind and solar power inevitably needs a storage system to provide energy on demand. Hydrogen is a promising candidate for this task. For the re-conversion of the valuable fuel hydrogen to electricity a power plant of highest efficiency is needed. In this work the Graz Cycle, a zero emission power plant based on the oxy-fuel technology, is proposed for this role. The Graz Cycle originally burns fossil fuels with pure oxygen and offers efficiencies up to 65 % due to the recompression of about half of the working fluid. The Graz Cycle is now adapted for hydrogen combustion with pure oxygen so that a working fluid of nearly pure steam is available. The changes in the thermodynamic layout are presented and discussed. The results show that the cycle is able to reach a net cycle efficiency based on LHV of 68.5 % if the oxygen is supplied “freely” from hydrogen generation by electrolysis. An additional parameter study shows the potential of the cycle for further improvements. The high efficiency of the Graz Cycle is also achieved by a close interaction of the components which makes part load operation more difficult. So in the second part of the paper strategies for part load operation are presented and investigated. The thermodynamic analysis predicts part load down to 30 % of the base load at remarkably high efficiencies.

The penetration of renewable sources, particularly wind and solar, into the grid has been increasing in recent years. As a consequence, there have been serious concerns over reliable and safety operation of power systems. One possible solution, to improve grid integrity, is to integrate energy storage devices into power system network: storing energy produced in periods of low demand to later use, ensuring full exploitation of intermittent available sources. Focusing on photovoltaic energy system, energy storage is needed with the purpose of ensuring continuous power flow to minimize or to neglect electrical grid supply. A comprehensive study on a hybrid micro-CHP system based on photovoltaic panels using hydrogen as energy storage technologies has been performed. This study examines the feasibility of replacing electricity provided by the grid with a hybrid system to meet household demand. This paper is a part of an experimental and a theoretical study which is currently under development at University of Bologna where a test facility is under construction for the experimental characterization of a small scale cogenerative power system. This paper presents the theoretical results of a hybrid system performance simulations made of a photovoltaic array an electrolyzer with a H 2 tank and a Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell stack designed to satisfy typical household electrical demand. The performance of this system have been evaluated by the use of a calculation code, in-house developed by the University of Bologna. Results of the carried out parametric investigations identify photovoltaic and fuel cell systems’ optimal size in order to minimize the purchasing of electrical energy from the grid. Future activities will be the tuning of the software with the experimental results, in order to realize a code able to define the correct size of each sub-system, once the load profile of the utility is known or estimated.

In urban areas, it is preferable to use small wind turbines which may be integrated to a building in order to supply the local grid with green energy. The main drawback of using wind turbines in urban areas is that the air flow is affected by the existence of nearby buildings, which in conjunction with the variation of wind speed, wind direction and turbulence may adversely affect wind energy extraction. Moreover, the efficiency of a wind turbine is limited by the Betz limit. One of the methods developed to increase the efficiency of small wind turbines and to overcome the Betz limit is the introduction of a converging – diverging shroud around the turbine. Several researchers have studied the effect of shrouds on Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines, but relatively little research has been carried out on shroud augmented Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. This paper presents the numerical study of a shrouded Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. A wide range of test cases, were examined in order to predict the flow characteristics around the rotor, through the shroud and through the rotor – shroud arrangement using 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. The power output of the shrouded rotor has been improved by a factor greater than 2.0. The detailed flow analysis results showed that there is a significant improvement in the performance of the wind turbine.