Unsteady flow field in a mini VAWT with relative rotation blades: analysis of temporal results

Abstract

The present wind turbine is a small one which can be used on roofs or in gardens. This turbine has a vertical axis. Each turbine blade combines a rotating movement around its own axis and around the main rotor axis. Due to this combination of movements, flow around this turbine is highly unsteady and needs to be modelled by unsteady calculation. The present work is an extended study starting in 2009. The benefits of combined rotating blades have been shown. The performance coefficient of this kind of turbine is very good for some blade stagger angles. Spectral analysis of unsteady results on specific points in the domain and temporal forces on blades was already presented for elliptic blades. The main aim here is to compare two kinds of blades in case of the best performances.