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Aerodynamical phenomena in a large top covered wind mill with vertical axis wind turbine

Abderrahmane Baïri (Université de Paris, Laboratoire Thermique Interfaces Environnement (LTIE EA 4415), Ville d’Avray, France)
Cyril Crua (School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom)
Jean-Gabriel Bauzin (Laboratoire Thermique Interfaces Environnement (LTIE EA 4415), Ville d’Avray, France)
Iken Baïri (Université de Paris, Laboratoire Thermique Interfaces Environnement (LTIE EA 4415), Ville d’Avray, France)

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

ISSN: 0961-5539

Article publication date: 4 January 2016

280

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the aerodynamical and air mass flow phenomena taking place in the channel of a modified version of one of the well-known Sistan wind mills, in order to improve its aerodynamic performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The simulations are done by means of the finite volume method associated to the realizable k-ε turbulence model. The computational domain consists in a rotating sub domain including the wind turbine equipped with nine blades and a fixed sub domain including the rest of the computational domain. Both are connected by means of a sliding mesh interface. Calculations are done for 8×105-4×106 Reynolds number range, corresponding to inlet velocities varying from 2 to 10 m s−1.

Findings

The velocity fields are presented for the stopped and operating turbine (static and dynamic conditions). A careful examination of the aerodynamic phenomena is performed to detect potential vortices that could develop in the central cavity of the active assembly, and then influence the wind turbine’s operation.

Originality/value

The modification proposed in this survey is easy to realize, consisting in covering the top of the entire original assembly that avoids the extraction of a large part of the air mass flow occurring through the open top of the original version. The aerodynamic phenomena occurring across the channel of this large vertical axis wind turbine are substantially different from those of the original version.

Keywords

Citation

Baïri, A., Crua, C., Bauzin, J.-G. and Baïri, I. (2016), "Aerodynamical phenomena in a large top covered wind mill with vertical axis wind turbine", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 365-378. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-11-2014-0350

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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