A numerical investigation of a new horizontal wind turbine performance for rural use

Abstract

In this paper, a new configuration of a horizontal axis wind turbine with three blades for domestic electricity production on farms was numerically simulated. Three configurations were tested numerically: a standard single-blade wind turbine (STWT), a single wind turbine (SWT), and a tandem three-blade wind turbine (TWT) for rural use. For the tandem wind turbine, the effects of pitch angle and the distance between the blades were also investigated. The Gambit and Fluent 19.2 codes were, respectively, used to generate different meshes and determine various parameters. The resolution of the averaged Navier–Stokes equations (RANS) using a finite volume method was conducted. The k–[Formula: see text] realizable two-equation model was chosen for turbulence calculation. The obtained results showed that the maximum power coefficient (Cp) was 0.444 for one of the tandem configurations (TWT), compared to the conventional blade (STWT). The maximum Cp obtained in this study is slightly greater than the experimental results found in the literature. It has also been observed that the flow on these new turbines exhibits a complex phenomenon on both surfaces.