less than 50 kW - small scale wind turbines

The maximum coefficient of performance (Cp

The solidity of the turbine - the ratio between the blade area to the swept area.

• increasing the number of blades

• increasing the chord length of the blades
Advantages of VAWT over HAWT.

• they are omni-directional and can accept wind from any direction and can therefore be
situated at places where the wind is turbulent and where the wind direction changes often
less noisy
• when they are not mounted on a building roof and a mast is required, the height is usually
10 to 30 meters above the ground.
• VAWTs offer advantages such as constant blade shape along their length, eliminating the
need for blade twisting seen in Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) [2].
• This design feature simplifies blade fabrication, reduces costs, and ensures uniform wind
speed exposure across the blade, enhancing overall efficiency and ease of maintenance.

Disadvantages of VAWT over HAWT.

• their inability to perform adequately in low-speed conditions

• Needs high starting torque

The wind turbine parameters considered in the design process are:

• Swept area

• Power and power coefficient

• Tip speed ratio

• Blade chord

• Number of blades
• Solidity

• Initial angle of attack

 1. WIND TUNNEL AND NUMERICAL STUDY OF A SMALL VERTICAL AXIS
WIND TURBINE

• 1.2 m * 1.2 m. The tunnel consists of a large bell mouth screened inlet with a contraction
ratio of (2.5:1) before the flow encounters another screen and an array of honeycomb
flow straighteners. The tunnel has a working section of length 3.0 m.
• A 20cm*43 cm turbine (i.e. area 0.086 m2)
• The NACA0022 profile had a thickness of 22 mm and a resulting chord of 100 mm
• The VAWT had a height of 400 mm, limited by the CNC machine used for
manufacturing, resulting in an aspect ratio of 4 and a solidity of 1.0 for the three-bladed
turbine and 0.67 for the two-bladed turbine

Conclusions from the Study

• VAWT tested in the study was influenced by various factors, including rotor blade surface
finish and Reynolds number
• Below a critical Reynolds number of 30,000, the turbine's performance was enhanced by
a roughened surface.

• Two and three-bladed rotor models showed similar peaks in performance coefficient,
with the three-bladed design achieving these peaks at a lower Tip-Speed Ratio

• Two-dimensional simulations demonstrated significantly higher performance compared

to three-dimensional simulations due to the presence of large tip vortices in the real
turbine and 3D simulations

• The study highlighted the periodic pulsing nature of tip vortices caused by changing lift
generated by the rotor blades during each revolution

• Stronger tip vortices were observed during phases with higher lift generation, while
reduced lift resulted in significantly reduced vortices

• The impact of rotor blade surface roughness on turbine performance directly affect the
turbine's efficiency

• Dynamic stalling behavior and changes in force coefficients due to rotor pitch angle
variations significantly affected the turbine's performance (the importance of pitch angle
control)

• The presence of over tip vortices in 3D simulations was identified as a key factor
contributing to efficiency differences compared to 2D predictions
 2. SMALL-SCALE VERTICAL AXIS WIND TURBINE DESIGN

The research paper introduces the innovative Stream tube Expansion Algorithm

And done wind turbine performance analysis and prediction

3. A REVIEW ON SMALL SCALE WIND TURBINES

The radius and height of a wind tunnel scale VAWT used in experimental investigations were
reported to be 0.35 meters and 0.6 meters, a solidity of 0.34

Future research should focus on conducting 3D Large Eddy Simulations (LES) to gain a better
understanding of the dynamics of VAWTs and optimize airfoil designs for enhanced efficiency

• Implementation of guide vanes in Straight Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

significantly boosts performance, leading to a peak power coefficient approximately 1.8
times higher than turbines without guide vanes

• a negative preset pitch can enhance turbine performance by up to 29%, while a positive
preset pitch may reduce performance by as much as 47%

• Variable pitch mechanisms have been shown to outperform fixed-pitch turbines,

especially at low tip speed ratios. Turbines with variable pitch angles ranging from -70°
to +70° exhibit superior performance compared to those with -10° to +10° pitch angles

• Wind tunnel tests results - canted blades demonstrate different performance

characteristics compared to straight blades due to blade sweep and variations in peak
power and blade tip speed ratio

Straight Bladed Derrius Turbine

• Unable to self-start at wind speeds below 4 m/s

• Lower rotational speed
 4. AERODYNAMIC DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF A SMALL-SCALE VERTICAL
AXIS WIND TURBINE

• defined the appearance and basic dimensions of a small-scale vertical axis wind turbine
suitable for urban environments or building rooftops

• The comparison of the results with publicly available data on existing VAWTs showed
close alignment, validating the use of the momentum and vortex-wake models due to
their simplicity and ease of implementation

• limitations exist in the approach,

Limited number of studied airfoils and simplifications in the mathematical models,

• further enhancements in the models by incorporating different stall models or three-
dimensional effects, improving the accuracy of VAWT aerodynamic analyses

• The Darrieus-type VAWT, despite being the simplest lift force driven wind turbine,
presents complex aerodynamic challenges,

• The momentum model used in the initial design phase of VAWT proved effective in
determining maximal power coefficients,

5. FULL SCALE BEHAVIOR OF A SMALL SIZE VERTICAL AXIS WIND

TURBINE

Details about the turbine

• . The 6 kW VAWT was installed on the roof of an industrial building.

• The VAWT is an H-rotor turbine having synchronous generator with variable rotor speed,
8 m diameter 10 and 5.8 m height (the swept area is 46m2), five aluminized steel and
fiberglass blades, hydraulic and electrical 11 brakes plus regenerative braking provided
by the control system. The weight of the permanent magnet 12 generator is 3120 kg.
According to the technical data sheet, the cut-in, the nominal, the cut-out wind speed are,
13 respectively, 3-4 m/s, 12 m/s, 18 m/s. The turbine is supported by a 10.8 m high steel
pole, made up of two 14 cast iron polygonal shafts superimposed by slip joints. The base
and top diameters are, respectively, 876 mm 15 and 612 mm; the shaft thickness is from 8
to 6 mm. It is placed upon the dam, at 4.5 m above sea level. The 16-rotor center is at
about 18 m above the ground
dvantages of VAWT over HAWT

· their ability to accept wind from any direction without the need for mechanisms to control
blade orientation (omni-directional)

· they respond better to varying, unsteady wind conditions and produce lower acoustic
emissions, making them ideal for urban or off-grid applications (e it has better aerodynamic
performance than the horizontal axis wind turbine under the complicated wind environment,)

· including lower sound emissions

· higher adaptability to yaw

Lower cost; • lower need of maintenance; • lower sound emission; • independence from wind
directions due to rotor axialsymmetry; • better impact on the environment due to their
“tridimensionality.”

VAWTs give many advantages when compared traditional horizontal-axis wind turbines
(HAWTs). They may be packed very closer together inside the wind farms, and this allows more
in any space. They are also quiet, they are omni-directional, and they also generate lower forces
on the support structure. They also do not need as much wind in order to produce power,
therefore permitting them to be nearer to the ground where the speed of the wind is lower.
Because they are closer to the ground, this means they are easily controlled and can be
implemented on tall structures [3].

VAWT types

Drag type- They can self-start at very low wind speeds but have a very low efficiency

Savonious

Lift type- Tighter efficiency but suffer from being difficult to start at low solidity

· The configurations of lift-type VAWTs are relatively simple

· the flow characteristics in the operational conditions are very complex
· It includes highly turbulent flows and strong interactions, such as dynamic stall,

Advantages of HVAWT over other types

reduce the torque oscillations in each revolution and hence increases the lifespan

The solidity of the turbine - the ratio between the blade area to the swept area

Why did you choose helical turbines

What are the research gaps in that sector
Darrieus

(a) Egg-beater VAWTs, (b) H-rotor VAWTs, and (c) Helical VAWT

,H-rotor VAWTs encounter self-starting issues at low TSRs

helical VAWTs are well-known for the least difficulty of self-starting among various kinds of
Darrieus VAWTs

helical turbine had an advantage in starting up at low TSRs, the H-rotor turbine still exhibited
higher power coefficients at high TSRs than its helical counterpart

Self-starting performance of the H-rotor and helical turbines improved with the increase of blade
chord length and wind velocity.

a lack of analysis regarding the self-starting performance, particularly in turbulent flows

The twist angle is defined as the sweeping angle between airfoil sections at the top and bottom
ends in the rotation direction (see Fig. 2). A twist angle of φ = 80 ◦ was set for all helical blades.

pitch angle adversely affected the self-starting performance of the helical turbine in a significant
way,

Using CFDs,

analyzes and solves the problems related to fluid flows, utilizing numerical methods and
algorithms with the help of electronic computers.Well tuned CFD models can simulate the actual
flow conditions which can produce results in close agreement with experimental outcomes.

provide knowledge about the flow in all its details, such as velocities, pressure, temperature, etc.
Further, all types of useful graphical presentations, such as flow lines, contour lines, and isolines,
are readily available.

How do we measure the starting torque ?

To assess the power performance and self-starting capability of the H-rotor and helical VAWTs, a
torque sensor and a braking system were introduced.

How do we know whether the starting capability and aerodynamic efficiency improved or not
Self starting aerodynamic characteristics

developed a numerical simulation to determine the parameters that govern the self-starting
capability of the turbine,

solidity, and fixed pitch angle influence the aerodynamic characteristics of the VAWT. The
maximum mean energy coefficient (0.10) is achieved when s=0.3; however, the minimum self
starting time tp (8.0s) is achieved when s is located at a range of 0.6–1.0; the solidity cannot
make the VAWT having both the small tp and large CP. For the VAWT with different fixed pitch
angles, it is found that appropriate fixed pitch angle (b=22.5) can make the VAWT having both
the faster self-starting time and larger mean energy coefficient
Advantages of VAWT

• Vertical-axis wind turbines produce high starting torque

• some designs have the capability to self-start in low wind velocity conditions.
• their ability to accept wind from any direction without the need for mechanisms to
control blade orientation
• they respond better to varying, unsteady wind conditions and produce lower acoustic
emissions, making them ideal for urban or off-grid applications
• including lower sound emissions
• higher adaptability to yaw
VAWT types

Drag type- They can self-start at very low wind speeds but have a very low efficiency
Lift type- Tighter efficiency but suffer from being difficult to start at low solidity

• The configurations of lift-type VAWTs are relatively simple

• the flow characteristics in the operational conditions are very complex
• It includes highly turbulent flows and strong interactions, such as dynamic stall,
blade-wake interactions, shaft effect.
Therein, dynamic stall, which is induced by the essential changes in angle of attack (AoA) of the
rotating blades during each revolution when they operate at low TSRs (λT < 4), is considered as
one of the most important issues to be investigated in lift-type VAWTs.

Advantages of HVAWT

reduce the torque oscillations in each revolution and hence increases the lifespan

The solidity of the turbine - the ratio between the blade area to the swept area.

the blade twist angle: The azimuth angle difference between the top and bottom airfoil sections
for one blade

Angle of attack - the angle included between the chord direction and the relative velocity

1. Efficiency Investigation of a Helical Turbine for Harvesting Wind Energy

Darries type drawback

due to the vibrations cause by the blades changing their angle of attack during the rotation of the
turbine, the turbine is prone to fatigue failure in its parts or joints

Helical type original papers

• Gorlov, Alexander M. Unidirectional Helical Reaction Turbine Operable Under

Reversible Fluid Flow for Power Systems. 5,451,137 United States of America,
September 19, 1995.
 • Gorlov, Alexander M. Helical Turbine Assembly Operable under Multidirectional Gas
and Water Flow for Power and Propulsion Systems. 6,155,892 United States of America,
December 5, 2000.
• Gorlov, Alexander M. The Helical Turbine: A New Idea for Low-Head Hydro. September
1995, Hydro Review, pp. 44-50.

This paper is done for an already made helical turbine and some testing done to measure the
efficiency.

2. Investigation of aerodynamic performance of helical shape vertical-axis wind

turbine models with various number of blades using wind tunnel testing and
computational fluid dynamics

The main objective of the current study is to apply a combination

of CFD and Taguchi method for understanding the combined
influence of leading-edge serrations and helical design on the
performance of an H type VAWT at low TSRs. A comprehensive
3-D numerical study and the Taguchi method will be employed.

Dynamic stall

dynamic stall occurs, a serious flow separation would generate from the leading-edge of turbine
blades, introducing severe structural vibrations, and resulting in fast drop in power efficiency and
causing highly fluctuated aerodynamic loads [19,20].
Hamada et al. [21] found the dynamic stall behavior has a significant impact on the torque
generation of turbine blades beyond the static stall condition. Thus, many flow control
methodologies have been proposed to apply on wind turbines aiming to alleviate the dynamic
stall behavior.
Using passive technique would be a solution

Ex:

 This paper studied the flow characteristics by attaching Gurney flaps, vortex generators on
turbine blades, which illustrate the potentials to control dynamic stall in some circumstances.
But these methods are not always effective.

 This employed a suction slot design on a NACA0015 airfoil, the results show that the blade
torque coefficient increased by 40% within the stall regime due to the delay of stall
condition. (https://doi. org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2017.03.010.)

 inspired from the morphology of humpback whales by using tubercles (or called serrations)
at leading-edge of blades, is gradually receiving more attentions to control flow stall (Wang
Z, Zhuang M. A numerical study of trailing edge serrations on sunroof buffeting noise
reduction. SAE Int J Veh Dyn Stabil. NVH 2017; 1:112–8.)

 experimentally investigated on a hydrofoil by implementing sinusoidal serrations on the

leading-edge to control flow separations at high AoAs. The results show that a counter-
rotating vortex pair is formed over each serration, which significantly alters the flow in the
region near leading-edge and mitigates the flow separations in the downstream region at
AoAs of 15° and 20°. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.08.004.)

• the turbines with high solidity (e.g., solidity > 0.5) usually have higher power coefficient
than those have low solidity (e.g., solidity < 0.3) at low TSRs (e.g., TSR < 2.5).
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-014-0129-x.)

• the helical design illustrates a slight improvement than the straight-bladed one when the
incoming wind speed is between 8 and 15 m/s, The possible reason for this could be the
helical-bladed configuration presents a larger TSR range very close to the maximum
power coefficient. (https://doi.org/ 10.1088/1742-6596/753/6/062009.)
 • the helical wind turbine model with a twist angle of 60° has around 8–12% enhancement
in power coefficient at low TSRs. This is probably due to that smaller blade tip vortices
are generated, and a lower cut-in speed is required in the helical blade design.
(https://doi.org/10.3390/ en8043013.)

• Helical turbine used three rotor blades, so the maximum helical angle is 120°.
• The blade twist angle affects the performance.

The Taguchi method

It could be a very effective tool to analyze and optimize the aerodynamic performance of a wind
turbine system
There are three steps included in this methodology:

(1) define the objective function

(2) find a proper set of orthogonal arrays according to factors and levels, and perform the
minimum number of experiments
(3) use the test data to determine the optimum design parameters by analyzing the signal-to-
noise ratio (S/N ratio).

3. Aerodynamic Analysis of a Helical Vertical Axis Wind Turbine

 The inlet velocity is 9 m/s
Reynolds number is 60,800

the aerodynamic difference between VAWTs equipped with straight and helical blades separately
by the application of 3D U-RANS simulation in Alaimo, A.; Esposito, A.; Messineo, A.;
Orlando, C.; Tumino, D. 3D CFD analysis of a vertical axis wind turbine. Energies 2015, 8,
3013–3033.

It was shown that a helical rotor generated less power but displayed more stable performance in
comparison with a straight rotor. a vorticity transport model to investigate the 3D performance of
turbines with straight, curved, and helical blades under unsteady wind conditions. The results
showed that wind velocity oscillation was the main cause of the power loss observed on a turbine
with non-twisted blades compared with a HVAWT.

Scheurich, F.; Brown, R.E. Modelling the aerodynamics of vertical-axis wind turbines in
unsteady wind conditions. Wind Energy 2013, 16, 91–107.

Schuerich, F.; Brown, R.E. Effect of dynamic stall on the aerodynamics of vertical-axis wind
turbines. AIAA J. 2011, 49, 2511–2521.

Wind tunnel testing

The HVAWT used in the experiments was in a 2.6:1 scale model of the unit used for the CFD
simulation with the same aspect ratio of 0.77 and blade solidity of 0.29.

Common mathematical models used in VAWT.

a. The stream-tube model

predicting the overall aerodynamic performance of a VAWT.

Its principle is based on the streamwise momentum equation. Then, calculations can be
performed in a series of stream-tubes to observe the non-uniform velocity distribution of fluid.
the model has been improved to give the multiple stream-tube model

it fails to handle transient simulations at high blade loading and under high Reynolds number
conditions.

Rajagopalan, R.G.; Fanucci, J.B. Finite difference model for vertical axis wind turbines. J.
Propul. Power 1985, 1, 432–436.

Strickland, J.H. Darrieus Turbine: A Performance Prediction Model Using Multiple Streamtubes;
Sandia Labs.: Albuquerque, NM, USA, 1975.

b. The panel method

to study blade-wake interactions, and vortex stretching and contraction in the wake region of
VAWTs.

In this method, the flow is assumed as the potential flow, which is contrary to the real conditions,
especially for the low TSR condition under which viscosity plays a dominant role

c. large eddy simulation (LES) method

Gaps from the paper

• the 3D U-RANS method was applied for the full-size simulation. But it is better if 3D LES
method is used, to get more accurate and detailed information on the flow field

• the power output in one revolution does not strictly follow the 90° cycle as predicted for the
HVAWT with four blades, especially adopting a higher TSR. This is because when TSR is
increased gradually, the flow field of the HVAWT
becomes more like the flowing around a rotating
cylinder, and a wake vortex shedding pattern is
observed as shown in 19. The unstable flow is
introduced by the wake vortex and combined with
the original flowing with 90° cycle to form the real
flow field. Therefore, the effect of the shedding
wake vortex on the aerodynamic performance
should be studied to get more accurate estimation of
a HVAW

• future efforts should be devoted to eliminating or decreasing the three-dimensional effects on

aerodynamic performance of HVAWTs, like adding some fences on the tips or blade surface
to remove the second flow and tip vortex effects.