Synthetic jet application in the wind turbine concentrator design

ABSTRACT

Due to population growth and technological advancements, the energy demands of countries are increasing every year. Consequently, research and development (R&D) studies in renewable energy have been on the rise in order to meet the growing energy demands. Wind energy is especially crucial in this regard. Wind turbines are capable of producing energy within the wind speed range of 5 m/s to 25 m/s, with a capacity factor of approximately 30–35%. In areas where wind speeds are insufficient, efforts are being made to improve turbine performance for energy production at low wind speeds. One of these studies involves incorporating the turbine into a concentrator to increase the wind speed and subsequently the capacity factor of the turbine for energy production at low wind speeds. In this study, the concentrator of the wind turbine with the SG 6043 blade section is taken into consideration, and the impact of synthetic jet application in the wind turbine concentrator is investigated. An optimization study is conducted to determine the parameters that will maximize the speed increase in the concentrator. The optimum parameters that lead to the maximum wind speed increase in the concentrator are as follows: the velocity of the synthetic jet is 140 m/s, the frequency of the synthetic jet is 58.89 Hz, the angle of the synthetic jet is 26.16º, the position of the synthetic jet is 0.675 m, and the angle of attack is 24.1º at a free wind speed of 5 m/s. The use of synthetic jet application in the wind turbine concentrator results in a 1.33 times increase in free wind speed. Consequently, the concentrator with synthetic jet application can be used in regions with poor wind speed statistics to generate energy from wind and increase the capacity factor of wind turbines.

KEYWORDS:

• Synthetic jet
• concentrator
• optimization
• response surface method
• CFD analysis

Nomenclature symbols

Fjet	=	Non-dimensional jet frequency
${\theta }_{\mathit{jet}}$	=	Angle of the jet
$U_{\mathit{jet}}$	=	Non-dimensional jet Velocity
$\mathit{\alpha }$	=	Angle of the attack
$X_m$	=	Disc thickness
$\vec{d}$	=	Unit vector in the jet direction
$F_{\mathit{exp}}$	=	Frequency of the jet
$X_{\mathit{jet}}$	=	Location of the jet
$U_{\mathit{exp}}$	=	Velocity of the jet
$C_{\mathit{pj}}$	=	Pressure coefficient
$U_{\mathrm{\infty }}$	=	Free-stream velocity
${\mathit{U}}_{\mathit{N}}$	=	Average velocity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Teoman Oktay Kutluca

Teoman Oktay Kutluca is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Baskent University in Ankara. He received his BSc from Erciyes University (Kayseri, Turkey) in 1996 and his MSc from Kırıkkale University (Kırıkkale, Turkey) in 1998. He is currently working as a Director at the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources. His main areas of interest are renewable energy.

Emre Koç

Emre Koc is an assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey. He received his BSc., MSc and PhD degrees from the Baskent University in 2009, 2012 and 2020 respectively. His main interests are fluid mechanics, computational fluid mechanics and wind energy.

Tahir Yavuz

Tahir Yavuz is professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey. He received his BSc. degree in Mechanical Engineering Department from Karadeniz Technical University. This was followed by a master’s and PhD degree from University of Leicester, England. His main interests are fluid mechanics, blunt body aerodynamics and wind energy.