Performance estimation of small‐scale horizontal axis wind turbine blade

Abstract

The extracted energy from the wind is mainly influenced by the geometry of the rotor blades. Determining the aerodynamic optimum blade shape is one of the main tasks of the wind turbine designer. In the current study, the mixed airfoil technique was employed by using “Blade‐Element‐Momentum” (BEM) and “Computational‐Fluid‐Dynamics” (CFD) analysis to predict the aerodynamic performance of a small‐scale horizontal axis wind turbine blade. The BEM was then run using the open‐source wind turbine design and performance computation program Q‐Blade. The numerical simulation is carried out by Ansys Fluent. Here, the k‐ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) model was used. The results were compared with existing experimental data on lift and drag coefficients at the optimal angle of attack. The results of the two approaches were compared for different tip speed ratio values and a good agreement between CFD and BEM results was found.