Investigation into the aerodynamic performance of a vertical axis wind turbine with endplate design

Abstract

For the past decade, research on vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) has garnered immense interest due to their omnidirectional characteristic, especially the lift-type VAWT. The H-rotor Darrieus VAWT operates based on the lift generated by aerofoil blades and typically possesses higher efficiency than the drag-type Savonius VAWT. However, the open-ended blades generate tip loss effects that reduce the power output. Wingtip devices such as winglets and endplates are commonly used in aerofoil design to increase performance by reducing tip losses. In this study, a CFD simulation is conducted using the sliding mesh method and the k-? SST turbulence model on a two-bladed NACA0018 VAWT. The aerodynamic performance of a VAWT with offset, symmetric V, asymmetric and triangular endplates are presented and compared against the baseline turbine. The simulation was first validated with the wind tunnel experimental data published in the literature. The simulation showed that the endplates reduced the swirling vortex and improved the pressure distribution along the blade span, especially at the blade tip. The relationship between TSR regimes and the tip loss effect is also reported in the paper. Increasing VAWT performance by using endplates to minimise tip loss is a simple yet effective solution. However, the improvement of the power coefficient is not remarkable as the power degradation only involves a small section of the blades.