A straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine with a directed guide vane has been proposed in order to enhance its torque. The experimental study of the proposed wind turbine was carried out by a wind tunnel with an outlet diameter of 1.8m. The tested rotor has 3 straight rotor blades with a profile of NACA0018, a radius of 0.35 m and a height of 0.7 m. The guide vane which consists of an arc plate rotates around the rotor and is directed to the wind by aerodynamic force generated by tail vanes, so as to put the guide vane in upstream of the rotor. As a result, the performance of the straight-bladed vertical axis turbine was improved by means of the directed guide vane and the power coefficient of the proposed wind turbine was approximately 1.2 times higher than that of the original wind turbine which has no guide vane. Further, flows around the proposed wind turbine have been investigated by use of the vortex method which provides a Lagrangian simulation of unsteady and vortical flows.

Volume Subject Area:
Offshore Renewable Energy
Keywords:
Fluid machinery, Wind energy, Vertical axis wind turbine, Guide vane, Numerical simulation, Vortex method
Topics:
Guide vanes, Vertical axis wind turbines, Vortices
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 by ASME
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