Lift Enhancement of a Rotating Cylinder for Magnus Wind Turbine

Abstract

Magnus wind turbine is a wind turbine that uses Magnus effect to generate electricity. The lift force was measured by using three models (cylinder with no fins, cylinder with straight fins and cylinder with spiral fins) in a wind tunnel testing and it was confirmed that the high lift force was generated by the cylinder with spiral fins. Alternatively, there was no difference in lift force between the straight and spiral fins under low rotational speed condition. It was confirmed that the vortex behavior produced by the interaction between the freestream and the fin was significantly related to lift generation.