Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Steady and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Curved Deforming Blades
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Vertical-axis wind turbines’ simpler design and low center of gravity make them ideal for floating wind applications. However, efficient design optimization of floating systems requires fast and accurate models. Low-fidelity vertical-axis turbine aerodynamic models, including double multiple streamtube and actuator cylinder theory, were created during the 1980s. Commercial development of vertical-axis turbines all but ceased in the 1990s until around 2010 when interest resurged for floating applications. Despite the age of these models, the original assumptions (2-D, rigid, steady, straight bladed) have not been revisited in full. When the current low-fidelity formulations are applied to modern turbines in the unsteady domain, aerodynamic load errors nearing 50% are found, consistent with prior literature. However, a set of steady and unsteady modifications that remove the majority of error is identified, limiting it near 5%. This paper shows how to reformulate the steady models to allow for unsteady inputs including turbulence, deforming blades, and variable rotational speed. A new unsteady approximation that increases numerical speed by 5–10× is also presented. Combined, these modifications enable full-turbine unsteady simulations with accuracy comparable to higher-fidelity vortex methods, but over 5000× faster.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003525
- OSTI ID:
- 1817721
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-2021-9945J; 697992
- Journal Information:
- AIAA Journal, Vol. 60, Issue 1; ISSN 0001-1452
- Publisher:
- AIAACopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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