Efficiency Improvement of Darrieus Wind Turbine Using Oscillating Gurney Flap

Abstract

In this work, a new model of Darrieus wind turbines with an oscillating gurney flap (OGF) is proposed. A detailed 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) investigation is carried out using ANSYS-Fluent 22.0 to assess the turbine performance. The OGF can alter its position between the upper and lower blade surfaces during the turbine rotation. Equations related to the combined motion are implemented through a user-defined function (UDF). The proposed model is validated where a good coincidence is achieved. The overset dynamic mesh method is used. It was found that a judicious synchronization of OGF and turbine blades creates beneficial vortex interactions, which correct the pressure distribution and lead to an overall improvement in the lift force. The magnitude of the improvement is highly dependent on the OGF length and the phase motion φ. The average torque coefficient Cm for the controlled case increased by more than 19% in comparison with the nominal case.

Keywords

• Darrieus wind turbines
• oscillating gurney flap
• performance enhancement
• CFD