Iranian Journal of Mechanical Engineering Transactions of ISME

Iranian Journal of Mechanical Engineering Transactions of ISME

Effect of blade section profile on the starting time of a micro-wind turbine

Authors
Abolfazl Pourrajabian 1
Morteza Rahmanpour 2
1 Department of Energy, Materials and Energy Research Center (MERC), Karaj, Iran
2 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Azarbayejan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
The study investigates the effect of airfoil used in a horizontal axis wind turbine blade on its power coefficient and also the starting time. Although the effect of airfoil type used in wind turbine blades is known from the aerodynamics viewpoint and researchers have tried to use airfoils with high aerodynamic efficiency, the appropriate choose of an airfoil requires more investigation from the standpoint of starting. In this study, the output power and the starting time of a small horizontal axis wind turbine are calculated via blade element momentum theory. For that purpose, a numerical scheme is developed and validated by the experimental data. Thereafter, the four airfoils namely NACA4412, SD7062, SG6040 and SG6043 are selected and the effect of employing these profiles on the turbine performance is examined. The results reveal that the use of SG6043 airfoil not only leads to more output power but it also results in shorter starting time. The superiority of SG6043 over other airfoils are due to its higher lift to drag ratio and also its lower surface area.
Keywords
Micro wind turbine
starting time
blade
airfoil
power coefficient

Subjects

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Iranian Journal of Mechanical Engineering Transactions of ISME
Volume 21, Issue 4 - Serial Number 57
Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer
Winter 2020
Pages 130-148

  • Receive Date 28 May 2019
  • Revise Date 30 June 2019
  • Accept Date 14 August 2019