The effects of sinusoidal leading edge of turbine blades on the power coefficient of horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT)

ABSTRACT

In order to improve the aerodynamic performance of horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT), a sinusoidal shape is applied to turbine blade. In this study, four types of modified blades were chosen based on variations in amplitude and wavelength of protuberance along the leading edge. Compared with the baseline model, the power coefficients (C_p) of HAWT with modified blades were improved, especially at low tip speed ratios. At low wind speed (V = 6 m/s), blades with short wavelength obtain significant improvement in C_p compared with the baseline model. As wind speed increases, this improvement decreases. In addition, turbine blade with large amplitude and long wavelength obtains better C_p values at higher wind speeds than lower ones, which have a great potential to be more superior at relatively higher wind speeds.

KEYWORDS:

• Aerodynamic performance
• horizontal-axis wind turbine
• power coefficient
• sinusoidal leading edge
• wind energy
• wind tunnel experiment

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, through grant NSC 102-2221-E-006-084-MY3.