Study on aerodynamic performance of inverted cone vertical axis wind turbine with different rotor configurations

Offshore wind resources are abundant. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are suitable for working in the sea environment because of their low cost and high reliability. In this paper, an offshore floating inverted cone vertical axis wind turbine (ICVAWT) is proposed. The 3D unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is utilized to model the ICVAWT. The turbulence model SST k−ω is used to solve the Navier–Stokes equation, and the setting parameters of the solver and the independent grid are determined. The scale experimental prototype is designed using the similarity theory and the wind tunnel experiment is carried out. The experimental results verify the validity of the CFD model. The aerodynamic performance of nine ICVAWT configurations is analyzed by using the CFD model, and the effects of inverted cone angle and blade number on the power coefficient and operation stability of the ICVAWT are studied. It is found that when the inverted cone angle is 45°, and the number of blades is three (called the optimal configuration), the power coefficient is the highest at 0.309 (the optimal tip speed ratio is 3.5). With the increase in inverted cone angle and blade number, the fluctuation of wind turbine operating torque decreases. According to the distribution of each physical quantity in the flow field, the changes in aerodynamic performance are explained. Further research on the optimized configuration is carried out.