Design and Analysis of an Adaptive Dual-Drive Lift–Drag Composite Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Generator

Abstract

In this paper, based on the lift-type wind turbine, an adaptive double-drive lift–drag composite vertical-axis wind turbine is designed to improve the wind energy utilization rate. A drag blade was employed to rapidly accelerate the wind turbine, and the width of the blade was adaptively adjusted with the speed of the wind turbine to realize lift–drag conversion. The aerodynamic performance analysis using Fluent showed that the best performance is achieved with a blade curvature of 30° and a drag-type blade width ratio of 2/3. Physical experiments proved that a lift–drag composite vertical-axis wind turbine driven by dual blades can start when the incoming wind speed is 1.6 m/s, which is 23.8% lower than the existing lift-type wind turbine’s starting wind speed of 2.1 m/s. At the same time, when the wind speed reaches 8.8 m/s, the guide rail adaptive drag-type blades all contract and transform into lift-type wind turbine blades. The results show that the comprehensive wind energy utilization rate of the adaptive dual-drive lift–drag composite vertical-axis wind turbine was 5.98% higher than that of ordinary lift-type wind turbines and can be applied to wind power generation in high-wind-speed wind farms.