Flow visualization around rotating blades of micro wind turbine

Abstract

A flow around rotating blades of micro wind turbine was visualized and measured by PIV technique. The diameter of micro wind turbine is 500 mm. This micro wind turbine is a unit of integrated wind energy system. The micro turbine has features as large solidity and long chord length. The measurement was carried out with 3 × 1.8 m² wind tunnel at the wind speed in the range from 3 to 10 m/sec. Twin YAG laser was employed to the measurement. An approaching flow to the wind turbine and its wake were visualized with a phase locked measurement system. Stream lines in an approaching flow was discussed for the design of the blade in the visualized two-dimensional plane. A wake flow of the wind turbines was examined for the improvement and noise reduction of this system. It is found that the wake flow was disturbed and large scale vortices was observed in all wind speed condition.