Investigation of the Impact of Airfoil Geometry Alteration on Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Performance by CFD Method

Abstract

As a promising source for sustainable energy, a wind turbine transforms the wind kinetic energy into electrical energy. In wind turbines, the geometry of the airfoil affects the magnitude of the aerodynamic forces on the blade surfaces. In the present work, the influence of the geometrical shape of the standard NACA 63-415 airfoil on the blade performance was investigated with the SST k-? turbulence model using ANSYS Fluent at different wind speeds (4-16 m/s). The CFD results of the standard airfoil were verified by experimental work. In the first step, NCLS30 and NCLSUS 30 airfoils were generated by modifying the surface shape of the standard airfoil. In the second step, the solid blade models were created by calculating the optimum chords and twist angles for a design attack angle of 7°, design tip speed ratio of 7 and blade length of 20 m at 1 m intervals along the blade using SOLIDWORKS program. The highest power coefficient (CP) value of 0.511 was achieved with the NCLSUS 30 blade at 16 m/s wind speed of and the CP of the blade model increased by 10.62% in comparison to the standard NACA 63-415 blade. The peak blade velocity for the NCLSUS 30 blade was 7.2% higher than that with the standard blade model. The new blade models introduced in this study is thought to help future research related to the wind turbine blade design. © 2023, TUBITAK. All rights reserved.