Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A. Laneville
Professor. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine
This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation on a driven Darrieus
P. Vittecoq turbine rotating at different tip speed ratios. For a Reynolds number of 3.8 x 104,
Associate Professor. the results indicate the presence of dynamic stall at tip speed ratio less than 4, and
Mechanical Engineering Department, that helicopter blade aerodynamics can be used in order to explain some aspects of
Universitede Sherbrooke, the phenomenon. It was observed that in deep stall conditions, a vortex is formed at
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada J1K2R1 the leading edge; this vortex moves over the airfoil surface with 1/3 of the airfoil
speed and then is shed at the trailing edge. After its shedding, the vortex can interact
with the airfoil surface as the blade passes downstream.
J
00
Introduction
This paper presents the results from a series of tests on a
V.A.W.T. with straight blades and attempts to elucidate the
complicated dynamic stalls experienced by this machine.
Although Darrieus wind turbines are relatively simple devices
with fixed-geometry blades rotating about a vertical axis, the
motion of the blades (NACA 0018 airfoil for example)
resembles the one of an oscillating airfoil. As the turbine
rotates, the azimuthal angle changes and the airfoil ex-
periences a variation of incidence according to a sinusoidal
rule for the large tip speed ratio that gradually distorts
towards a sawtooth shape as the tip speed ratio reduces to uni-
ty. This unusual variation of incidence of the Darrieus wind
turbine blade is coupled to a variation of the relative wind
speed. On a single cycle, the local Reynolds number varies
significantly and in the worst case, the case of a tip speed ratio
of unity, this local Reynolds number reduces to zero at an
azimuth of ir. Such an unsteady aerodynamic situation where
an oscillating airfoil moves from a low Reynolds number to a
high Reynolds number in a single cycle leads to a kaleidoscope
of nonlinear phenomena that designers have to face. In order
to elucidate some aspects of the aerodynamics of the Darrieus Fig. 1 Definition and conventions of the velocities and forces for the
wind turbine and to obtain experimental data, a series of tests wind turbine
on a driven Darrieus turbine was undertaken in the open jet of
the Mechanical Engineering Department wind tunnel at the
Universite de Sherbrooke.
1.4 -V -
- 25
1.2
j\ ^- 20
.0
"V\
\ \ -- 15
.8
Fig. 4 Principles of measurement
10
.6 airfoil section: NACA 0015
c: 1 ft (0.3 m)
i i i i i i i i S R: 7.5 ft (2.25 m)
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 .
and operating at a tip speed ratio X of 3 under a wind velocity
Fig. 3 Effect of X on normalized reduced frequency and maximum of 20 mph, the Reynolds number can be estimated to 5.5 x
incidence
105 and the angle for static stall, 13 deg. From Fig. 3, these
operating conditions appear as ones where a?max is 19.5 deg
A simple dimensional analysis reveals that the independent and the reduced frequency is 0.1. Dynamic stall with vortex
variables for wind turbines with a symmetrical airfoil blade shedding is thus to be expected for a good duration of the cy-
operating at relatively low angular velocities are the following: cle. The presence of this phenomenon is reported in [2]. The
Reynolds number : oiRc/v Reynolds number is then indirectly a similitude criteria since it
Tip speed ratio : wR/U^ defines the onset of the static stall.
Curvature parameter: c/R
Pitch rate parameter : ca/oiR Experimental
The dependent variables are the pressure, forces, and moment The primary objective was to measure the tangential and
coefficients. The pitch rate parameter can be related to the normal aerodynamic forces (FT and FN) experienced by the
reduced frequency parameter, k, used in helicopter blade rotor blade for different values of offset pitch angle (a 0 ), tip
aerodynamics speed ratios (X), and number of blades (ri). The results
presented here will deal only with a„ = 0 and n - 2. Figure 4
k= camm/(wRx2anm) shows the principles of the force measuring system. The radius
for a mean value of incidence equal to zero. For the Darrieus and height of the rotor were, respectively, 0.3 m and 0.6 m.
wind turbine, the reduced frequency equivalent to the The central shaft was made of torsion-free steel and had a
helicopter blade is then diameter of 3.81 cm and a length of 152 cm. It was held at the
bottom by two ball bearings mounted inside a 18 cm steel
k = c/2R ( X - l)tan- > [X2 - 1 ] " l / 2 tube. The horizontal arm consisted of a hollow beam entirely
As indicated in Fig. 3, the equivalent reduced frequency of a covered by streamline aluminum sheets. The beam carried the
Darrieus wind turbine with a typical curvature parameter c/R blade supports, the force transducers and the amplifiers. Care
of 0.1 is in excess of 0.05. In this case, as reported by was taken to orient the bearings of the measuring system (axis
McCroskey [1], the machine is prone to strong dynamic stall of the blade suports shafts) in order to measure a single
with the presence of vortex shedding if the angle of attack ex- aerodynamic component. The amplified signals were transmit-
ceeds the angle for static stall. Figure 3 also indicates the max- ted via small electrical wires allong the central shaft and a
imum angle experienced by the wind turbine blade. commercial high quality slipring (AIRFLYTE, model
For the ASI/PINSON/NPI 1 kw wind turbine with the CAY-110) protected by a streamlined sheet. The rotational
following characteristics [2], speed was maintained by a variable-speed electrical motor
Nomenclature
C = airfoil chord
cD = lift coefficient Ua = undisturbed upstream air da/dt
cD = drag coefficient speed angle for static stall
FT = tangential aerodynamic force a = angle of incidence of the blade azimuth angle of the blade
FN = normal aerodynamic force with the relative air speed X tip speed ratio: u>R/U„
k = reduced frequency a0 = offset pitch angle of the blade 03 angular speed of the rotor
r& j&
b) X =4
c) X =3
0.6
+2
;Si b) X =4
-0.5
+ 1.0
X=3