Print Email Facebook Twitter Experimental and numerical investigations of aerodynamic loads and 3D flow over non-rotating MEXICO blades Title Experimental and numerical investigations of aerodynamic loads and 3D flow over non-rotating MEXICO blades Author Zhang, Y. (TU Delft Wind Energy) Gillebaart, T. (TU Delft Aerodynamics) van Zuijlen, A.H. (TU Delft Aerodynamics) van Bussel, G.J.W. (TU Delft Wind Energy) Bijl, H. (TU Delft Aerodynamics) Date 2017 Abstract This paper presents the experimental and numerical study on MEXICO wind turbine blades. Previous work by other researchers shows that large deviations exist in the loads comparison between numerical predictions and experimental data for the rotating MEXICO wind turbine. To reduce complexities and uncertainties, a non-rotating experimental campaign has been carried out on MEXICO blades Delft University of Technology. In this new measurement, quasi-2D aerodynamic characteristics of MEXICO blades on three spanwise sections are measured at different inflow velocities and angles of attack. Additionally, RANS simulations are performed with OpenFOAM-2.1.1 to compare numerical results against measured data. The comparison and analysis of aerodynamic loads on the blade, where three different airfoil families and geometrical transition regions are used, show that for attached flow condition, RANS computation predicts excellent pressure distribution on the NACA airfoil section (r=R D 0.92) and good agreement is observed on the DU (r=R D 0.35) and RISØ (r=R D 0.60) airfoil sections. Unexpected aerodynamic characteristics are observed at the intermediate transition regions connecting the RISØ and DU airfoils, where sudden lift force drop is found at the radial position r=R D 0.55. Through numerical flow visualization, large-scale vortical structures are observed on the suction side of the blade near the mid-span. Moreover, counter-rotating vortices are generated behind the blade at locations where unexpected loads occurs. Consequently, the RISØ airfoil could not give expected 2D aerodynamic characteristics because of upwash/downwash effects induced by these counter-rotating vortices, which make 3D effects play an important role in numerical modeling when calculating the aerodynamic loads for MEXICO rotor. Subject 3D effectsaerodynamic loadsnon-rotating bladesMEXICO wind turbineOpenFOAM To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8440676a-3afd-4239-95ba-61f2ef72e849 DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2025 ISSN 1095-4244 Source Wind Energy Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2017 Y. Zhang, T. Gillebaart, A.H. van Zuijlen, G.J.W. van Bussel, H. Bijl Files PDF Zhang_et_al_2016_Wind_Energy.pdf 4.25 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:8440676a-3afd-4239-95ba-61f2ef72e849/datastream/OBJ/view