Double actuator cylinder (AC) model of a tandem vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) counter-rotating rotor concept operating in different wind conditions

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the influence between the two counter-rotating VAWT rotors with the Double Actuator Cylinder (DAC) model which will be validated against the panel code. The DAC model is developed from the original Actuator Cylinder (AC) model which includes the Modified-Linear (Mod-Lin) correction. The original AC model for modelling single rotor is investigated, modified and validated against the panel code to be sufficient which is the premise for a sufficient DAC model. The original AC model is modified to become a dynamic AC model including Cheng’s modification, flow curvature effect and unsteady aerodynamics. The unsteady aerodynamics is included by coupling the modified Risø dynamic stall model with the AC model. An investigation with Migliore’s conformal mapping method as well as panel code revealed that the modified Risø dynamic stall model implicitly included the flow curvature effects. The derived dynamic AC model is validated to show good agreements with the panel code. It is also revealed that further improvements could be made to the Mod-Lin correction method. The DAC model is finally derived, and the performance on predicting the influence between the two rotors is then investigated.