Aerodynamic modeling of swept bladed vertical axis wind turbines

Abstract

The performance of vertical axis wind turbines with swept blades is examined though the use of a Lagrangian based, two dimensional free vortex model. This model is validated against experimental data taken from vertical axis turbines with both swept and unswept blades. A very good agreement is achieved in both cases. Blade sweep results in a reduction in chord-wise velocities, increasing the tip speed ratio at which blade stall occurs, lowering the maximum power coefficient attainable. Copyright © 2009 by Simon McIntosh and Holger Babinsky.