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Aerodynamic Performance of Trailing-Edge Modification of H-Type VAWT Blade Considering Camber Effect

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Abstract

This paper investigates the flow characteristics and wind energy utilizations of H-type vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) blade and its trailing-edge modification while having a certain camber to facilitate a greater understanding of the effects of airfoil’s trailing-edge thickness and relative camber. The geometric dimensions are designed for 100 W wind wheel with NACA0021 airfoil, whose trailing-edge thickness is 0.442%c (with c the chord length), and the simulation accuracy of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach is validated through comparing the calculated results of the Realizable k–ε turbulence model with experimental data. The blunt trailing-edge optimization of NACA0021 airfoil is performed by taking the maximum lift-drag ratio as the optimization objective, but the wind energy utilization of wind wheel with the optimized airfoil decreases with the increase of the trailing-edge thickness. Thus, the airfoil NACA0021 is modified to a sharp trailing-edge airfoil, namely, NACA0021S, and the wind energy utilization increases slightly. The airfoil’s relative camber is then increased by making the middle arc line locate on the circumference of wind wheel, and the effects of the relative camber on the pressure and vorticity distribution, torque, and wind energy utilization are analyzed. The results indicate that after the relative camber increases, the positive and negative pressure region areas decrease for NACA0021 and NACA0021S airfoils, and so do the length and distribution of the wake, but the torque coefficient and wind energy utilization increase.

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Abbreviations

A :

Swept area of wind wheel (m2)

A0, A1, … Ai :

Coefficients of shape function

B :

Number of blade

c :

Chord length (m)

C D :

Drag coefficient

C L :

Lift coefficient

C m :

Torque coefficient

C P :

Wind energy utilization

d :

Diameter of wind wheel (m)

h :

Blunt trailing-edge thickness (m)

j :

Ratio of trailing-edge thickness of upper surface to that of airfoil

k = 1, 2:

Upper and lower surfaces, respectively

l :

Blade length (m)

M k0 , M k1 , M k2 , M k3 :

Control points of profile

n :

Rotation speed (r/min)

P :

Rated power (W)

r :

Radius of wind wheel (m)

T :

Torque (N·m)

v :

Rated wind speed (m/s)

(x, y):

Coordinates of airfoil profile expressed by the profile integration theory (m)

(xk, yk):

Coordinates of a control point N on the original airfoil (m)

(xkt, ykt):

Coordinates of maximum relative thickness before the rotated transformation (m)

(x ′k , y ′k ):

Coordinates of a new point \( N^{'} \) after the rotated transformation (m)

y ′ kt :

Ordinate of maximum relative thickness after the rotated transformation (m)

(x ′′k , y ′′k ):

Coordinates of sharp trailing-edge airfoil (m)

α :

Argument (°)

β :

Angle with which to rotate the upper profile around the coordinate origin clockwise (°)

φ :

Angle with which to rotate the lower profile around the coordinate origin counterclockwise (°)

λ :

Tip speed ratio

θ :

Angle between the x axis and ON (°)

ρ :

Length of ON (m)

ρ 0 :

Air density (kg/m3)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51805369), the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (Grant No. 17JCYBJC20800), and the China Scholarship Council (Grant Nos. 201908120031 and 201908120062).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Mechatronics Equipment Technology, Tiangong University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Xu Zhang, Zhaoxuan Li & Xiang Yu

  2. School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Wei Li

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  1. Xu Zhang
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  2. Zhaoxuan Li
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Correspondence to Xu Zhang.

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Zhang, X., Li, Z., Yu, X. et al. Aerodynamic Performance of Trailing-Edge Modification of H-Type VAWT Blade Considering Camber Effect. Int. J. Aeronaut. Space Sci. 21, 587–598 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42405-019-00241-x

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