Numerical investigation of the effect of winglet configurations with multiple cant angles on the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blade

Abstract

A numerical investigation of the effects of winglets with multiple cant angles on the power output of the blade of a horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) is conducted. Several winglet configurations with single and multiple cant angles are designed and their performance is evaluated. Numerical solutions obtained by RANS equations and moving reference frame method were compared with the experiments and demonstrated that they concur well with the experimental data. In the torque and thrust comparison, the ones with multiple cant angles present better power output enhancement than those with a single cant angle at a relatively high wind speed. The configurations of multiple cant angles are effective in reducing the influence of wing tip vortices, resulting in a higher torque while maintaining the same winglet length and height.

Keywords

• Horizontal axis wind turbine
• CFD
• winglet configuration
• multiple cant angles
• tip vortices