Aerodynamic analysis of horizontal axis wind turbine using blade element momentum theory for low wind speed conditions

Abstract

All around the world, a rapid growth of energy demand during the last decades. An ideal alternative to meet this additional increasing demand would be through renewable energy resources such as wind energy. With over 300 GW of installed wind capacity worldwide and the target for future increase of capacity of more than 15% per year, the research to improve wind energy technology is further required. For countries around the equator where wind speed is low, the need for new innovative design of wind turbine for low wind speed condition or class 1 wind is of primary urgency. A new type of airfoil for low wind speed turbine blade need to be designed. The objective of this study is to investigate the design parameters influencing the performance of three blades Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT). Blade Element Momentum Theory was used to find the optimal performance, in term of the coefficient of power (Cp), which rates the turbine blade’s ability to extract energy from the available wind stream. The result shows the relationship between the changes of the power coefficient with tip speed ratio. The maximum power coefficient found was 0.57 at tip speed ratio 4.8. It was then shown that Cp reduced for higher tip speed ratio.