Effect of Blade Gap Ratio on Turbine Performance in Drag-Based Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

Abstract

The aim of this study was to improve the performances of three-bladed vertical-axis wind turbines with gap distance. For this purpose, turbine design conditions such as a gap ratio between the blades and the addition of blades were changed to provide performance increase, and an aerodynamic performance-enhancing performance setup placed in front of the vertical-axis wind turbine was also used. Therefore, in this study, the effects of gap distance and blade addition on wind turbine performance were investigated, especially by keeping the aspect ratio of the vertical-axis wind turbine constant. The investigation of the effects of turbine design parameters, such as the gap distance and additional blade number, on turbine performance was carried out using the ANSYS Fluent program with a numerical analysis method validated with experimental data. The turbine gap ratio, at which the maximum torque coefficient of a three-bladed vertical-axis wind turbine is obtained, was determined to be 40% without performance setup and 30% with performance setup. It was determined that the average torque coefficient value obtained from the turbine with the addition of turbine blades and with the performance setup increased by approximately 66% compared to the torque coefficient value obtained from the three-bladed turbine without the performance setup. It was also determined that the maximum power coefficient obtained from the vertical-axis wind turbine with optimum turbine design parameters with the performance setup increased by approximately 46% compared to the maximum power coefficient obtained from the version of the turbine without the performance setup.