Abstract
Performance of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) are numerically investigated by using vortex methods. Although VAWT have several advantages in comparison to the conventional propeller-typed wind turbines, they are not popular as commercial products, because of the weakly self-starting problem. In this study, we attempted to predict instantaneous turbulent flow-field around VAWT and estimate its aerodynamic performance. The result shows the aerodynamic performance is almost the same as the conventional wind turbines. Moreover, vortex methods are suitable method for performance estimation of wind turbines.
