IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i11p2936-d368616.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the Aerodynamic Behavior and Energy Conversion Capability of Small Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbines in Turbulent Flows

Author

Listed:
  • Francesco Balduzzi

    (Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy)

  • Marco Zini

    (Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy)

  • Andreu Carbó Molina

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy
    Aerospace Systems and Transport Research Group, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Camino del Molino S/N, Fuenlabrada, 28943 Madrid, Spain)

  • Gianni Bartoli

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (DICEA), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy)

  • Tim De Troyer

    (Thermo and Fluid Dynamics (FLOW), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium)

  • Mark C. Runacres

    (Thermo and Fluid Dynamics (FLOW), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium)

  • Giovanni Ferrara

    (Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy)

  • Alessandro Bianchini

    (Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy)

Abstract

Small Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have recently been proposed as a possible solution for adoption in the built environment as their performance degrades less in complex and highly-turbulent flows. Some recent analyses have even shown an increase of the power coefficient for the large turbulence intensities and length scales typical of such environments. Starting from these insights, this study presents a combined numerical and experimental analysis aimed at assessing the physical phenomena that take place during the operation of a Darrieus VAWT in turbulent flows. Wind tunnel experiments provided a quantification of the performance variation of a two-blade VAWT rotor for different levels of turbulence intensity and length scale. Furthermore, detailed experiments on an individual airfoil provided an estimation of the aerodynamics at high turbulence levels and low Reynolds numbers. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were used to extend the experimental results and to quantify the variation in the energy content of turbulent wind. Finally, the numerical and experimental inputs were synthetized into an engineering simulation tool, which can nicely predict the performance of a VAWT rotor under turbulent conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Balduzzi & Marco Zini & Andreu Carbó Molina & Gianni Bartoli & Tim De Troyer & Mark C. Runacres & Giovanni Ferrara & Alessandro Bianchini, 2020. "Understanding the Aerodynamic Behavior and Energy Conversion Capability of Small Darrieus Vertical Axis Wind Turbines in Turbulent Flows," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2936-:d:368616
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2936/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2936/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Balduzzi, Francesco & Bianchini, Alessandro & Maleci, Riccardo & Ferrara, Giovanni & Ferrari, Lorenzo, 2016. "Critical issues in the CFD simulation of Darrieus wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 419-435.
    2. Lee, Kung-Yen & Tsao, Shao-Hua & Tzeng, Chieh-Wen & Lin, Huei-Jeng, 2018. "Influence of the vertical wind and wind direction on the power output of a small vertical-axis wind turbine installed on the rooftop of a building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 383-391.
    3. Pagnini, Luisa C. & Burlando, Massimiliano & Repetto, Maria Pia, 2015. "Experimental power curve of small-size wind turbines in turbulent urban environment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 112-121.
    4. Balduzzi, Francesco & Bianchini, Alessandro & Ferrara, Giovanni & Ferrari, Lorenzo, 2016. "Dimensionless numbers for the assessment of mesh and timestep requirements in CFD simulations of Darrieus wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 246-261.
    5. Mohamed, M.H., 2014. "Aero-acoustics noise evaluation of H-rotor Darrieus wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 596-604.
    6. Janajreh, Isam & Su, Liu & Alan, Fathi, 2013. "Wind energy assessment: Masdar City case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 8-15.
    7. Balduzzi, Francesco & Bianchini, Alessandro & Ferrari, Lorenzo, 2012. "Microeolic turbines in the built environment: Influence of the installation site on the potential energy yield," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 163-174.
    8. Lubitz, William David, 2014. "Impact of ambient turbulence on performance of a small wind turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 69-73.
    9. Patil, Rohit & Daróczy, László & Janiga, Gábor & Thévenin, Dominique, 2018. "Large eddy simulation of an H-Darrieus rotor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 388-398.
    10. Peng, H.Y. & Lam, H.F., 2016. "Turbulence effects on the wake characteristics and aerodynamic performance of a straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbine by wind tunnel tests and large eddy simulations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 557-568.
    11. Balduzzi, Francesco & Bianchini, Alessandro & Carnevale, Ennio Antonio & Ferrari, Lorenzo & Magnani, Sandro, 2012. "Feasibility analysis of a Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbine installation in the rooftop of a building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 921-929.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giovanni Ferrara & Alessandro Bianchini, 2021. "Special Issue “Numerical Simulation of Wind Turbines”," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-2, March.
    2. Ahmed Gharib-Yosry & Eduardo Blanco-Marigorta & Aitor Fernández-Jiménez & Rodolfo Espina-Valdés & Eduardo Álvarez-Álvarez, 2021. "Wind–Water Experimental Analysis of Small SC-Darrieus Turbine: An Approach for Energy Production in Urban Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lam, H.F. & Peng, H.Y., 2017. "Measurements of the wake characteristics of co- and counter-rotating twin H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 13-26.
    2. Xu, Wenhao & Li, Gaohua & Zheng, Xiaobo & Li, Ye & Li, Shoutu & Zhang, Chen & Wang, Fuxin, 2021. "High-resolution numerical simulation of the performance of vertical axis wind turbines in urban area: Part I, wind turbines on the side of single building," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 461-474.
    3. Balduzzi, Francesco & Drofelnik, Jernej & Bianchini, Alessandro & Ferrara, Giovanni & Ferrari, Lorenzo & Campobasso, Michele Sergio, 2017. "Darrieus wind turbine blade unsteady aerodynamics: a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes CFD assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 550-563.
    4. Li, Chao & Xiao, Yiqing & Xu, You-lin & Peng, Yi-xin & Hu, Gang & Zhu, Songye, 2018. "Optimization of blade pitch in H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines through computational fluid dynamics simulations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1107-1125.
    5. Balduzzi, Francesco & Bianchini, Alessandro & Ferrara, Giovanni & Ferrari, Lorenzo, 2016. "Dimensionless numbers for the assessment of mesh and timestep requirements in CFD simulations of Darrieus wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 246-261.
    6. Wu, Zhenlong, 2019. "Rotor power performance and flow physics in lateral sinusoidal gusts," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 917-928.
    7. Su, Jie & Chen, Yaoran & Han, Zhaolong & Zhou, Dai & Bao, Yan & Zhao, Yongsheng, 2020. "Investigation of V-shaped blade for the performance improvement of vertical axis wind turbines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    8. Matteo Vedovelli & Abdelgalil Eltayesh & Francesco Natili & Francesco Castellani, 2022. "Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Blades Number on the Dynamic Response of a Small Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-19, December.
    9. Peng, H.Y. & Lam, H.F. & Liu, H.J., 2019. "Power performance assessment of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines with different aspect ratios in turbulent flows via experiments," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 121-132.
    10. Dessoky, Amgad & Lutz, Thorsten & Bangga, Galih & Krämer, Ewald, 2019. "Computational studies on Darrieus VAWT noise mechanisms employing a high order DDES model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 404-425.
    11. Peng, H.Y. & Liu, H.J. & Yang, J.H., 2021. "A review on the wake aerodynamics of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    12. Lee, Kung-Yen & Tsao, Shao-Hua & Tzeng, Chieh-Wen & Lin, Huei-Jeng, 2018. "Influence of the vertical wind and wind direction on the power output of a small vertical-axis wind turbine installed on the rooftop of a building," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 383-391.
    13. Siddiqui, M. Salman & Khalid, Muhammad Hamza & Zahoor, Rizwan & Butt, Fahad Sarfraz & Saeed, Muhammed & Badar, Abdul Waheed, 2021. "A numerical investigation to analyze effect of turbulence and ground clearance on the performance of a roof top vertical–axis wind turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 978-989.
    14. Emejeamara, F.C. & Tomlin, A.S., 2020. "A method for estimating the potential power available to building mounted wind turbines within turbulent urban air flows," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 787-800.
    15. Belabes, Belkacem & Paraschivoiu, Marius, 2021. "Numerical study of the effect of turbulence intensity on VAWT performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    16. Mohamed, M.H., 2019. "Criticism study of J-Shaped darrieus wind turbine: Performance evaluation and noise generation assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 367-385.
    17. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Kalkman, Ivo & Blocken, Bert, 2017. "Effect of pitch angle on power performance and aerodynamics of a vertical axis wind turbine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 132-150.
    18. Rezaeiha, Abdolrahim & Montazeri, Hamid & Blocken, Bert, 2019. "On the accuracy of turbulence models for CFD simulations of vertical axis wind turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 838-857.
    19. Chong, Wen-Tong & Muzammil, Wan Khairul & Wong, Kok-Hoe & Wang, Chin-Tsan & Gwani, Mohammed & Chu, Yung-Jeh & Poh, Sin-Chew, 2017. "Cross axis wind turbine: Pushing the limit of wind turbine technology with complementary design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 78-95.
    20. Muhammad Saif Ullah Khalid & David Wood & Arman Hemmati, 2022. "Self-Starting Characteristics and Flow-Induced Rotation of Single- and Dual-Stage Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-19, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2936-:d:368616. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.