Optimisation and performance analysis of vertical axis wind turbine with blade pitching at best position angle for different tip speed ratios

ABSTRACT

Best pitch position of each blade in the rotation of turbine at different azimuth angle has been calculated at different Tip Speed Ratios (TSRs) by using the aerodynamic analysis. This paper analyses and optimises the various design parameters and its influence on the starting turbine by itself, power coefficient and overall performance of the Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The results indicate that the best pitch position blade method improves the self-starting capacity and power coefficient. The best position blade pitching curve-1 gives maximum power coefficient at 45° pitch angles for TSRs of 0.5 and the best position blade pitching curve-5 with 15° pitch angle gives maximum coefficient of power about 0.49 for TSRs at 2.5. The results indicate that the variation of pitch angle from 45° to 10° with six best position blade pitching curves give the maximum power coefficient for TSRs from 0.5 to 3.

KEYWORDS:

• Vertical axis wind turbine
• aerodynamics
• single stream tube model
• blade pitch angle
• coefficient of power

Acknowledgements

The author would like to appreciate the support provided by Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr D. Y. Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Pune, India during the computational programming work for this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the research funds provided for this research project by the Board of Colleges and University Development (BCUD), Savitribai Phule Pune Univrsity, Pune, vide letter number BCUD/115/2015-16, Dated 09/04/2015.