Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) of vertical-axis wind turbine: mesh and time-step sensitivity study

S. Ashwindran; A. A. Azizuddin; A. N. Oumer

doi:10.15282/jmes.13.3.2019.24.0450

Authors

S. Ashwindran Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia, Phone: +6094246231; Fax: +6094246222
A. A. Azizuddin Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia, Phone: +6094246231; Fax: +6094246222
A. N. Oumer Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia, Phone: +6094246231; Fax: +6094246222

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15282/jmes.13.3.2019.24.0450

Keywords:

Vertical axis wind turbine, CFD, time-step, wind energy, sliding mesh

Abstract

This paper presents mesh and time-step dependence study of newly designed drag type vertical axis wind turbine. Ansys FLUENT a commercially available CFD solver was used to perform CFD numerical study on the drag type wind turbine. In computational analysis, 2D models was simulated under unsteady flow fields using SST k-ω to achieve stabilized numerical convergence. The model was analyzed at static and dynamic mode, where sliding mesh technique was used to analyze the turbine in dynamic mode. Three main parameters were taken under careful consideration: mesh resolution, turbulence model and time-step. Aerodynamic force was used in mesh sensitivity study for both static and sliding mesh. A small discrepancy in results of 2D sliding mesh result at different time-step and mesh resolution was observed. The generated results showed good agreement between fine and medium mesh with small difference in the initial initialization. In time-step dependency study for static mesh, dt=0.0002 time-step size was chosen for economical computational cost.

References

Sun X, Chen Y, Cao Y, Wu G, Zheng Z, Huang D. Research on the aerodynamic characteristics of a lift drag hybrid vertical axis wind turbine. Advances in Mechanical Engineering 2016; 8(1):168781401662934.

Bethi RV, Laws P, Kumar P, Mitra S. Modified Savonius wind turbine for harvesting wind energy from trains moving in tunnels. Renewable Energy 2019; 135:1056–1063,.

Schubel PJ, Crossley RJ. Wind Turbine Blade Design. Energies 2012; 5(9): 3425–3449

Nobile R, Vahdati M, Barlow JF, Mewburn-Crook A. Unsteady flow simulation of a vertical axis augmented wind turbine: A two-dimensional study. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 2014; 125:168–179.

Cao L, Wang H, Ji Y, Wang Z, Yuan W. Analysis on the influence of rotational speed to aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbine Procedia Engineering 2012; 31: 245–250.

Wang H, Wang J, Yao J, Yuan W, Cao L. Analysis on the aerodynamic performance of vertical axis wind turbine subjected to the change of wind velocity. Procedia Engineering 2012; 31: 213–219.

Ahmedov GPA, Tujarov K. Methodology for Numerical Modeling the Performance of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. University of Ruse Proceedings, ISBN 1311-332. 53. 194 - 201.

Mohamed MH, Ali AM. Hafiz AA. CFD analysis for H-rotor Darrieus turbine as a low speed wind energy converter. Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal 2015; 18(1): 1–13.

Fish FE, Weber PW, Murray MM, Howle LE. The tubercles on humpback whales’ flippers: Application of bio-inspired technology. Integrative and Comparative Biology 2011, 51(1) 203–213.

Cognet V, Courrech Du Pont S, Dobrev I, Massouh F, Thiria B, Bioinspired turbine blades offer new perspectives for wind energy. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2017 ; 473(2)198. 20160726.

Nobile R, Vahdati M, Barlow JF, Mewburn-Crook A. Unsteady flow simulation of a vertical axis augmented wind turbine: A two-dimensional study. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics 2014; 125: 168–179.

Lam HF, Peng HY. Study of wake characteristics of a vertical axis wind turbine by two- and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulations. Renewable Energy 2016; 90: 386–398.

Soe TM, Khaing SY. Comparison of Turbulence Models for Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Wind Flow on Cluster of Buildings in Mandalay. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 2017; 7(8): 337–350.

Tian W, Song B, VanZwieten J, Pyakurel P. Computational Fluid Dynamics Prediction of a Modified Savonius Wind Turbine with Novel Blade Shapes. Energies 2015; 8(8), 7915–7929.

Satrio D, Utama IKAP, Mukhtasor M. The influence of time step setting on the CFD simulation result of vertical axis tidal current turbine. Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences 2018; 12(1): 3399–3409.