Power Performance of an Inversely Tapered Wind Rotor and its Air Flow Visualization Analysis Using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)

TL;DRAbstract

Wind turbine rotors capture energy from moving wind, their capacity to perform this function depends on the coefficient of power (Cp) of the rotor. Through proper aerodynamic design, a rotor’s performance can be optimized to take advantage of the smallest available wind speed at any time to produce energy. In this research a computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed to model the best optimum dimensions of an inversely tapered rotor blade using Clark Y airfoil type rotor of 0.6 m diameter. The optimal design values obtained include; tip speed ratio (TSR) of 2.5, lift coefficient to drag coefficient ratio of 1.1 and pitch angle of 8 degrees Using blade element momentum (BEM), the wing profile of each section of the blade was calculated and designed. The unique inverse tapering was done to achieve a better efficiency at the low wind speed range. This was used to fabricate a three blade rotor using carbon composites which was tested in the wind tunnel for Cp. Results showed ver

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