Analytical Simulation Approach to Evaluate the Ambient Humidity Effects on the Performance of a Wind Accelerator

Abstract

Abstract The power production of wind turbines is experiencing an upward trend. However, on the other hand, the wind turbine’s performance slows down due to unseen changes in the environment. Humidity is one of the environmental factors affecting the performance of wind turbines. When humidity levels are high in the atmosphere, air is less dense. This air is lighter, and it results in reduced air pressure. A remedy to increase the air pressure in the direction of wind flow is to locate a wind accelerator, an aerodynamic device before the wind turbine to amplify the incoming wind speed and reduce the impact of humidity on the wind energy. This study intends to investigate the impact of environmental humidity on the performance of the wind accelerator. The study includes modelling the wind accelerator using Ansys 2023R1, to simulate different humidity levels. An analytical simulation is conducted to describe the aerodynamic behaviour of the wind accelerator in response to the changes in ambient humidity. The air at different percentage levels of humidity is passed through the proposed wind accelerator geometry to observe the wind speed variation and kinetic energy of the wind. The simulation study reveals that the wind speed and kinetic energy show higher values when the humidity is at a lower level, while the opposite is true when the humidity is higher. This emphasizes how important it is to consider all environmental elements while designing and developing wind turbines and wind accelerators for optimal performance subjected to various climatic conditions.