Numerical study of the effect of adding corona discharge based on plasma actuator on flow control performance in a horizontal axis wind turbine with rough surfaces

Abstract

The use of renewable energy has recently become very common in most countries of today's society. Among these renewable energies, wind energy is one of the most attractive methods of mechanical energy production, and different methods of flow control, including active, semi-active and passive, have been investigated by various researchers. To control the fluid flow in an active way on the wind turbine blade, the corona discharge actuator based on plasma is considered the most appropriate method to reduce the fluid flow separation on the wind turbine blade. In this paper, we present a numerical simulation to integrate active load control using a corona discharge based on plasma actuators over the roughness blade. Effects of roughness, actuators voltage and frequency on aerodynamics parameters such as separation point, lift and drag coefficients have been showed. Present results showed that, the lift coefficient increase with increase in the voltage and frequency of plasma actuators. Overall, using the roughness for outer surface of blade would decrease the critical pressure coefficient by approximately 50% compared to that for the smooth surface.

Keywords

• roughness surface
• horizontal axis wind turbine
• corona discharge
• plasma
• numerical simulation