Effects of geometry and tip speed ratio on the HAWT blade's root flow

In this study, the effect of the parameters playing a role in the root flow behavior of HAWT are only partly understood. To better reveal the root flow properties, this study presents the progression of HAWT blade root flow at two different blade geometries and at two different tip speed ratios. The effects of the geometry and the tip speed...

The origins of a wind turbine tip vortex

The tip vortex of a wind turbine rotor blade originates as a result of a complex distribution of vorticity along the blade tip thickness. While the tip vortex evolution was extensively studied previously in other work, the mechanism of the initiation of the tip vorticity in a 3D rotating environment is still somewhat obscured due to lack of...

Experimental and numerical study of radial flow and its contribution to wake development of a HAWT

The scope of this work was to investigate radial flow component for a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine in axial flow conditions and to assess its impact on the turbine operation. This was done by means of Particle Image Velocimetry and numerical simulation with a 3D unsteady potential-flow panel model. A direct comparison between the numerical and...

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Rotor Blockage on Wake Expansion

A detailed quantitative description of the aerodynamics of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is difficult due to complexity of the flow field. Several methods from experimental to analytical are used to investigate the aerodynamics of a HAWT. In the present study, a wind tunnel experiment and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations...