Numerical Study of the Thermal Behavior of a HAWT nacelle Operating Under Severe Saharan Climate

Abstract

The present work investigates numerically the impact of turbulent natural convection heat transfer on the nacelle thermal behavior. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes and energy equations have been considered. ANSYS FLUENT code has been employed to solve the resulting mathematical model. Temperature and velocity profiles within the 2D and 3D-configurations of the nacelle have been presented and discussed. Variations of the average temperature inside the nacelle and the required cooling capacity are determined and thoroughly discussed.