EFFECT OF POSITION IN A SHEAR FLOW ON PERFORMANCE OF STRAIGHT-BLADED DARRIEUS WIND TURBINE

Abstract

The performances of the straight-bladed Darrieus wind turbine with fixed and variable-pitch mechanism were investigated by the open circuit-type wind tunnel test and the numerical analysis with ANSYS Fluent. The present research aims to investigate the effect of the position in a shear flow to wind turbine on the power. The offset coefficient Ψ(= Y/D), which is the ratio of the distance between the tip of the porous flat plate and the center of the rotor (y= 0) to the diameter of wind turbine, was varied from −0.25 to 0.375. It was found that the fixed and variable-pitch wind turbine shave optimum positions in a shear flow.